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A weekend blaze cut short the lifespans of more than 3,500 vehicles packed tightly into a single massive overflow lot near Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Myers, Florida.
While the cause of the vehicular firestorm has not yet been determined, the resulting carnage is something to see. Despite dozens of water drops by local sheriff’s office helicopters, the overflow lot, ringed with acres of dry grass, proved the perfect econobox tinderbox.
Whether the late-Friday fire originated as a grass fire or turned into one is not known, but the towering blaze fueled by the gasoline, engine oil, tires, hoses, belts, and fabrics of thousands of vehicles backstopping the airport’s rental agencies soon spread to a nearby forest.
https://twitter.com/CCSOFLSheriff/status/1246287194307932162
“By the time we had units on the scene, we had 100 cars (on fire). We lost count after the hundreds,” Melinda Avni, Mitigation Specialist for Florida Forestry Service of Caloosahatchee, told CNN.
The fire burned into Saturday, ultimately consuming 15 acres of land, forest, and rental lot. Multiple fire departments, in addition to the forestry service and Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office, played a role in bringing the situation under control.
After firefighters extinguished the last ember, the Lee County Port Authority announced the loss of 3,516 vehicles.
Just completed 90 minutes of LIVE coverage of the RSW car fire for #WINKnews.
NEW information just in from @FFS_cafc:
10 acres
20 cars involved
85% containedBack in the control room for team coverage on @winknews at 10 and 11. #swfl #breaking
Video credit: Robert T pic.twitter.com/5YKStzxdr0— Lenny Smith (@lensmith22) April 4, 2020
Rental cars face a harsh early life and quick depreciation, but the vehicles immolated in Fort Myers barely had a chance to start their inglorious careers. Photos from the scene show a distinctive lack of Nissan sedans, Dodge Chargers, and various other rental favorites, though it could just be the vantage point that’s to blame. Without a doubt, they’re in there.
When the coronavirus pandemic’s grip on the U.S. auto industry eases, automakers can expect healthy fleet orders from southwest Florida.
[Image: welcomia/shutterstock]
Wildfires and arson both happen all the time- but the timing of this one is notable.
Does anybody remember what sensational news* was cluttering up the news stream in the summer of 2001? Shark attacks. In a weird way, this one makes me think of the last shark attack of that season, sometime in September or October.
* Not to denigrate the victims of fire nor sharks in any way. Just comparing the two as the reporting tends to be sensational.
No matter how often shark attacks occur, the news always describes them as “rare”.
FSU statistics – An average of 10 people in Florida are killed by lightning strikes annually and 40 are seriously injured.
Meanwhile, there were 16 shark attacks in Florida in 2018.
You can stay out of the water but it is much harder staying out of the air.
Each type of attack was of course ‘unprovoked’.
I often fish for sharks and like most fish they spook/scare easily. However since they lack hands they tend to explore and test things using their mouth. If people had any idea how many sharks are in FL waters they would never go in. They are very plentiful but leave people alone 99% of the time. Based on years of fishing and snorkeling I worry more about jellyfish, fire coral, stingrays and barracudas then sharks.
“they tend to explore and test things using their mouth”
That’s fairly well known among people who live near the coast. A lot of so-called shark attacks, when little jaws takes a bite but doesn’t rip a chunk of flesh out of your leg, are the shark going “chomp… eww… ptooey!” and swimming on to check out the next thing.
“If people had any idea how many sharks are in FL waters they would never go in.”
Which is also common knowledge among coastal dwellers and kind of a running joke when the beaches and shallow waters get crowded with wall-to-wall tourists. I happen to like the wall-to-wall tourists… they spend their money on things like hotel taxes which means that I don’t have to pay state income tax. And to circle back to the topic at hand, some of their money also goes to various rental car surcharges that are location/airport-specific and tourism-related.
Ancillary comment: Apparently the odds of winning a multi-state lottery are roughly equivalent to being struck by lightning *while* being eaten by a shark.
I remembered a TODAY Show item about it on the morning of the 10th.
Thank you! I mention that to people and they look at me like I’m crazy. I think the whole Gary Condit thing was around that time as well.
And the news stories about concern of actress Anne Heche’s mental state.
I LOL’d at the headline, though in defense of rental cars I will say that I’ve rented several Fusions in the past five years and they were all loaded to the gills.
After the Fusions I ended up with an Enclave, and was shocked at both how incredibly chintzy everything inside it was and at how utterly, totally, completely, irredeemably awful it was to drive. Before that I’d never actually driven a crossover, and dear Lord was it way worse than I imagined it might be. It was like piloting a plate of jello from the top of a TV antenna. I can only hope that Buick failed uniquely, because only misery lies ahead if that’s how awful CUVs are in general.
Yeah, as much as risk units (company-owned) tend to be lower trim models since it’s rare you’ll get the cost of any options back in resale, the buybacks (leased for 4-12 months) tend to be really nicely equipped.
“I can only hope that Buick failed uniquely”
What, nobody else is making CUVs? Chevrolet comes to mind.
I mean, I hope other peoples’ CUVs are better than Buick’s, rather than my fear, which is that they’re pretty much all that bad except for the ones Porsche and Alfa make, which are almost as good to drive as a 2006 Avalon. C/D keeps saying there are good CUVs but man… I dunno…
” I hope other peoples’ CUVs are better than Buick’s”
I am certain that not. CUV cannot be good because of physics unless it is a Tesla.
Oh, not at all. I’ve driven a Chevy Traverse. The Enclave is MUCH nicer.
To be fair, your rental bar may be higher than you think. The Fusion, regardless of trim level, is criminally underrated. It’s beautiful, comfortable, practical, affordable, and handles like a base Bimmer. I’ve driven every trim level of Fusion from junior-Maserati to stripped fleet car, and every one of them is a pleasure to drive. Less so the Fusion Energi, mostly because it feels a lot slower than it actually is and is outclassed by newer PHEVs, but still. The average Fusion is better than it has any right to be — particularly given that its competitors have been refreshed multiple times now while it soldiers on unchanged.
Well, that is one way to stimulate the economy…..
Whenever I reserve a rental car, I check the box for a full size sedan. And? The last three times they have given me a CUV or SUV. The Mazda CX3 was pretty good. The Jeep Compass was slow enough to remind me of rental cars thirty years ago – when you press down on the gas, the engine gets a lot louder but you don’t go noticeably faster. The Nissan Pathfinder was completely forgettable.
The best rental car I have driven in the past couple of years was a Dodge Charger SRT with the 5.7l Hemi. Not sure how that snuck into the Avis fleet. Haz powah.
Whenever I check full-size I get stuck in a midsize.
I remember that switcheroo. Years ago I would reserve a full size sedan, expecting an Impala-sized car. Then they would give me a Malibu. When I protested, they pointed out that the Malibu qualifies as full-sized, based on the EPA interior volume index. Apparently the ‘Bu was above the mid/full cutoff by a fraction of a cubic foot.
Gotta get that Status @Hummer.
Do you mean an R/T rather than an SRT? Availability as a rental car would make sense from the standpoint that the 5.7 is–and it seems ludicrous to me even to type this about something putting out 370-hp–the second-from-the-bottom of the various engines available in the Charger.
Anybody with experience or opinions on the 5.7? Engines with cylinder deactivation make me a little skittish.
Now that you mention it, it may have been an R/T optioned with the Hemi. The base R/T engine is the V6.
No the base R/T engine is the 5.7L Hemi V8. GT and SXT and “Rallye” versions are V6. Any current AWD is also V6. The least optioned SRT will be a 6.4L V8 of nearly 500 HP. I looked at one with 20k miles after a year, zero options and 5 wrecks on the history – I figured it had been a rental but renting out 485 HP to the general populace seems……. risky.
“Anybody with experience or opinions on the 5.7?”
I owned a Charger 345 from 2014-2018, about 45k miles. Engine was very nice, arguably the nicest sedan engine you can get for under $40K. Good sound, linear power, and not terrible mileage for something with 370hp. Some people suffer a “HEMI tick” but mine never had an issue. The MDS does flatten out the exhaust note and gives some *slight* NVH shudder as it goes on/off, but didn’t give me any reliability trouble (granted I didn’t rack up tons of miles).
Fun car but the overall build quality was pretty poor.
However, if you’re interested in a Charger I’d say look at a 392, it isn’t that much of a price jump these days and it really moves you into a different performance class with very few drawbacks.
I’ve seen Challenger Scat Packs (so, 6.4) at a few airports, but the Charger is probably just (I know, “just”) a 5.7 R/T.
QUOTE— “Anybody with experience or opinions on the 5.7? Engines with cylinder deactivation make me a little skittish”
Two incidents of direct experience. 2006 300C Hemi still running like new (and cylinder cutoff working as new) at 195k miles, more reliable than I ever would have guessed. TOTALLY reliable in fact. Also a 2016 Charger R/T bought new, very well put together car and drives wonderfully (has every option). I had the mufflers removed but left the rearmost resonators which helps cut drone during times of cylinder cutoff. Would highly recommend anything with the Hemi.
Those are Toyotas, I think. That doesn’t look like a Nissan grille on the silver pickup in one of those photos, though the symbol in the middle of the grille looks suspiciously like a Mercedes tri-star emblem.
Just another case of strange, normally unrelated things that are affected by this virus. Normally rental cars in SW FL this time of year should be in the hands of spring breakers and other seasonal visitors. But due to the shutdown they got stock piled in a make shift lot of dry grass (the rainy season is still two months away). A small fire quickly became a big fire.
love 2 park hot cars over dry grasses
A couple of years ago I rented a Dodge Challenger RT with the Hemi from Hertz. I was somewhat bemused when the agent recommended it plus it was less money than a base or premium Mustang.
Several pics online show a Challenger, but white and a V6 so this saves me needing to say BURN IT WITH FIRE :)
If those were Toyoduhs or Nissans, hopefully they all burned to the ground. Hideous things when they aren’t toasty. After the fire, they’ll improve in looks.
Awww I feel sad for you, not being able to fit “duh” into “Nissan” – must crush you.
I think he innovated with Mazduh the other day.
+1
Cash for roasted clunkers.
Funny how a rash of random fires tends to occur during periods of sudden widespread economic hardship….
My first thought was about the insurance payout for this. Which rental company owned these vehicles and what did their balance sheet look like beforehand? One would believe that a careful company would take care of the storage of the revenue-generating inventory…
Most, if not all, of the major rental companies are self-insured. They’ll be taking a total loss on these unless they can luck out and figure out whose negligence caused this and pursue that company for damages.
I scanned through several news videos. I see a pretty wide variety of makes and models, like Mini Coopers and Dodge Challengers.
An aftermath video from the next day also showed rows of undamaged cars, including a white Toyota 4Runner. The reporter also noted that over 4,000 other cars were undamaged, and had been transferred to other locations.
The purpose of a lockdown is to prevent disease transmission from sick people to healthy ones. I don’t see how this is compromised by driving around with your windows up. Even if you need to buy gas, outdoors at a gas station is a hostile environment for a virus. Just don’t walk up to somebody and cough in his face.
Here in Arizona, golf courses are still open with the warning to keep a safe distance from the other players. My wife and I go to the supermarket every ten days to restock. People are careful to stay at least six feet from each other as much as possible. A few have been wearing masks and this will increase now that their use is encouraged. (If medical workers need N95 masks, I’m not sure how much good a bandana will do.) Every two or three days, we see our horse at a nearby stable. It’s outdoor boarding so it’s easy to avoid the other horse owners if they show up at the same time.
All those Altimas, Camrys, Fusions, and Malibus
“Photos from the scene show a distinctive lack of Nissan sedans, Dodge Chargers, and various other rental favorites, though it could just be the vantage point that’s to blame.”
That or they were melted together in one big mass, like a sticky box of Jujubes left on the top of the dashboard in the hot sun.
“Gummy Bear [Mister Rooney]? They’ve been in my pocket. They’re real warm and soft.”
Wow, that’s a lot of CARnage…
I’ll see myself out
I never TIRE of automotive puns.
Wheel good!
Once I had a clothing store
Business, it was bad
Asked my Uncle Murray what to do, this is what he said
Take a can of gasoline, pour it on the floor
Take a match,
Make a scratch,
No more clothing store