JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – As Memorial Day approaches, the travel experience at Jacksonville International Airport was relatively unaffected Thursday by the fire that broke out in the hourly garage nearly one week ago.
But, a well-known law firm is entering the fray, saying it has been selected by “several” people who were affected by the flames that damaged about 50 vehicles last Friday.
Morgan & Morgan officials say they have "begun to investigate what went wrong and what could have been done to prevent this fire" in a statement sent to News4JAX.
The entire statement can be read below.
We have been retained by several people impacted by the massive fire at Jacksonville International Airport’s Hourly Parking Garage whose cars, along with dozens of others, have been destroyed.
We have already begun to investigate what went wrong and what could have been done to prevent this fire. We will work to uncover any negligence that contributed to this scary and dangerous incident and hold potentially responsible parties accountable for the damage caused.
Morgan & Morgan founder John Morgan and attorney Rick Block
News4JAX contacted the Jacksonville Aviation Authority for a response on the matter and received the following:
Right now we are focused on reuniting passengers who parked in the hourly garage with their vehicles, stabilizing the comprised garage structure and returning the airport to normal operations.
JAA spokesperson
The Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms Bureau said it is the lead investigative agency on the garage fire and is still working to determine the cause and origin.
On the travel front, people were coming and going at JAX ahead of Memorial Day, a typically busy travel day for airports across the country.
"We rented a car from Avis. We drove straight into the rental, packed the car, and here we are, no problems, no hold ups. Everything was running very smoothly," said local traveler Judith Tracey.
"I was kind of anticipating it being bad with the Memorial Day weekend, but it was fine," Maria Hernandez said. "On Sunday, when I picked up my rental car, I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to get back in here, but everything was fine. They just had us drive in and drop off the car. Everything was easy peasy."
But while the traffic flow, parking, rental pick-ups, and drop-offs may be easy, Heather Moran was on a trip when the hourly garage caught fire.
She’s headed out again for another trip, but her car remains in the damaged structure.
“Finally received a first text back on Sunday evening, and it’s still pretty vague,” she said of her vehicle situation. “It’s pretty general. The similar, like, ‘We’ll let you know,’ and at this point, it’s indefinite.
She continued to say that she was informed that she shouldn’t anticipate getting her vehicle back and will continue to play the waiting game.
“We figure we’d better leave our keys with somebody, in case our car is available. So we’ll have to wait and see,” she said.
