A large fire at the rooftop of Alicante Airport (Spain) has forced the airport authorities to evacuate the terminal building. Thousands of passengers gathered in front of the airport building.
The fire is affecting departing and arriving traffic as the airport is currently not accepting any air traffic. A Norwegian Boeing 737 (EI-FHR) diverted to nearby Murcia, while a TUI Fly Belgium Embraer 190 (OO-JEM) diverted to Valencia.
At round 16:15 (UTC +1), rescue services were able to put down the fire. The airport authorities hope to reopen the airport as soon as possible.
#Update: Just in – Another video of the large fire at the rooftop of the arrival terminal of the airport in the city of #Alicante in #Spain. pic.twitter.com/jsRnv6tFWC
— Sotiri Dimpinoudis (@sotiridi) January 15, 2020
? Por motivos de seguridad, se está evacuando el terminal de Aeropuerto de #Alicante–#Elche debido a un incendio en la cubierta. En este momento el aeropuerto no admite tráfico. pic.twitter.com/wZ6IdovZfB
— Aena (@aena) January 15, 2020
Estas son algunas imágenes del incendio en la cubierta de la terminal del aeropuerto Alicante-Elche https://t.co/L4sSdhLWEP pic.twitter.com/K4gwuQKb0h
— NIUS (@NiusDiario) January 15, 2020
Hi. Are you sure it was the Arrivals hall? Arrivals is downstairs and departures upstairs, so your comment confused me a bit. My colleagues who work at and near the airport, said the fire is at the top, well the roof actually, and other reports said it was in an office! This really affects our business (car rentals), as obviously our clients were not able to arrive!
Chrissie B., initial reports suggested it was the arrivals hall. I have corrected the article.