Early reports described electric car catching fire, which destroyed over 200 vehicles
The fire that broke out early yesterday evening in the car park of a car rental company near Lisbon’s Humberto Delgado airport, destroyed more than 200 vehicles before being extinguished and was being reported in the early stages as having begun in a Tesla brand of electric car.
That detail however has not made it into today’s reports which allude only to PJ police investigating the causes.
It is unclear what changed overnight, but damages have been estimated at ‘millions of euros’ – and the cars damaged and destroyed appear to have belonged to people who had left them (‘safely parked’) while travelling, by plane.
The fire burned for just over four hours, its dense black column of smoke causing several flights to be delayed, and being visible for many kilometres. It took place in the Prior Velho industrial area (Loures), with no houses close enough to have been affected.
According to SIC last night the “fire started in an electric car parked on the top floor of the rental company’s car park, and spread to other cars. Several explosions were heard at the scene (…) The car hire company has inflammable material, mainly fuel for cars, which made firefighting difficult. Firefighters’ work was also hampered by the wind”.
Today, Lusa confirmed that the car park is “owned by a company that collected vehicles from passengers travelling by plane”
The blaze was eventually brought under control just before 11pm, with ‘aftermath’ operations lasting until 2am.
There was no record of any injuries. Authorities have confirmed they were alerted to the blaze by telephone.
Greater Lisbon’s sub-regional commander of Civil Protection, Hugo Santos, has told Lusa that only one of the carpark’s two floors was affected: “The car park was covered on level 1 and uncovered on level 2, and only level 2 burnt down.
He added that “there may be damage to some vehicles that didn’t burn, but which could be damaged by the heat released by the fire”.
Source material: SIC Notícias/ Lusa
