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The blaze began Friday, spanned 15 acres and originally involved only 20 cars in the grassy rental car overflow area at the airport in Fort Myers, fire department officials said.
Melinda Avni, Mitigation Specialist for Florida Forestry Service of Caloosahatchee, said authorities were called to put out the fire around 5 p.m. Friday, when there were about 20 vehicles involved.
“By the time we had units on the scene, we had 100 cars (on fire). We lost count after the hundreds,” she said.
At least 80 airdrops were made by the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office’s aviation unit, it said in a Facebook post.
The forestry service deemed the blaze contained by 10:30 a.m. Saturday, nearly 18 hours after it began, Avni said.
The brush surrounding the overflow area caught fire and help its quick spread, but no structures at the airport were affected, Avni said. No injuries were reported and the cause of the fire is under investigation, she said.
FAA spokeswoman Arlene Salac said the fire had no impact on air traffic or operations at the airport.
In a Facebook post, the airport thanked all the agencies who responded to the blaze.
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