JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Jacksonville International Airport opened up its call center for the second day on Wednesday, telling people with cars still in the Hourly Parking Garage when they can come by to pick them up.
Some of them have been waiting for five days since the garage first closed because of the car fire Action News Jax has been telling you about since it happened on Friday.
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“This is very much a relief,” one woman from Amelia Island, who didn’t want to be named, told Action News Jax after seeing her car hadn’t been damaged when she picked it up Wednesday morning.
She said she’d parked it on the top floor of the south end of the hourly garage, one floor above where the Jacksonville Fire Rescue Department said the fire started.
“I just want to tell everyone to make sure their car is there before coming back to the airport,” she said.
Action News Jax told you yesterday when the Jacksonville Aviation Authority released a report saying the fire had started after a BMW was seen smoking on the security cameras inside the garage.
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The report said the smoke was seen at around 12:03 p.m., about four hours after it said the car had parked. One minute later, at 12:04 p.m., the report said the car caught on fire.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, along with the state fire marshal, is still investigating exactly how the car fire started.
“I saw the Jacksonville airport was on fire and said ‘Oh my God, my car is on that floor!’” said Cheryl Marlow, who picked up her car from the garage after coming back from a vacation to Mexico. She tells Action News Jax she’d seen the news of the fire while she was away.
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“I thought to myself, ‘I need a vacation from my vacation,’” Marlow said.
Action News Jax has requested the security camera video from inside of the garage showing the car fire starting on Friday. JAA said it can’t share the video with us at this time. JIA is keeping its call center open to let drivers know when they can pick up their cars from the garage.
We’ve asked airport leaders if there are any plans to try and open more parking for the Memorial Day weekend, but we’re still waiting to hear back.
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