Fire breaks out at STL terminal

Update: Initial reports indicated that Southwest Airlines Cargo operated out of terminal 1, where the fire broke out. In fact, Southwest Airlines operates out of Terminal 2 at St. Louis International, and was unaffected by the fire. 

Firefighters extinguished a fire that broke out in the terminal 1 at St. Louis International Airport’s (STL) yesterday morning.

The fire began around 7:30 a.m. in STL’s terminal one concourse B, and burned through plywood and roofing insulation below the roof’s top copper layer. The Florissant Valley fire department quickly reported the fire and requested support from surrounding fire departments, and implemented a forced evacuation of the terminal.

More than 130 firefighters responded to the incident from the St. Louis city fire department, containing and extinguishing the fire. Concourses A and C were unaffected, and no one was injured. Complete details on damage to concourse B, where the fire occurred, have yet to be released, although the terminal did reopen for passenger operations at 9:30 a.m. that same morning. STL has not yet responded with details regarding the fire’s impact to cargo operations.

The cause of the fire is currently under investigation.