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Kenya: Fire shuts down main airport
(Reuters) – A fire engulfed Kenya’s main airport on Wednesday, forcing the suspension of international passenger flights and choking a vital travel gateway to east Africa.
The blaze lit up the early morning sky, the billowing clouds of black smoke engulfing the terminal buildings visible from miles away.
The intense heat repeatedly drove back firefighters who battled for five hours to put out the fire, the worst on record at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Nairobi – east Africa’s busiest.
Michael Kamau, cabinet secretary for transport said an investigation into the fire would start immediately but that it was too early to speculate on the cause.
The blaze stranded thousands of passengers at the airport and exporters of perishable produce, mainly flowers, fruit and vegetables, feared for their export-driven businesses.
There were no immediate reports of casualties from the fire, which started in the arrivals and immigration area. Business travelers and tourists were diverted to other airports in the region.
Shares in Kenya Airways, which uses the airport as its main hub, fell 2 percent. Foreign carriers using the terminal include Emirates, British Airways, Qatar, KLM, Turkish Airways, South African Airlines and Ethiopian airlines.
Kenyan authorities said domestic flights and international cargo flights would resume later on Wednesday. Plans for international flights would be announced later.
“Right now we’ve allowed the cargo to come in. Fruits, flower are coming in and are being processed. We hope we will be able to resume domestic flights,” Kamau said.
The fire coincided with the 15th anniversary of a twin attacks by Islamist militants on the United States embassy in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, the commercial capital of neighboring Tanzania.
But security analysts said there was as yet no indication of any link to Islamist militants that Kenyan soldiers are battling in neighboring Somalia as part of an African Union force.
Flights were diverted to Kenya’s port city of Mombasa. Plans were underway to divert other flights to Eldoret in the northwest and Kisumu in the west, as well as to neighboring countries including Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda.