JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Monday marked one month since a devastating fire broke out inside the hourly parking garage at the Jacksonville International Airport.
The garage suffered major structural damage, leaving behind long-term effects that are still being felt one month later.
Tracey Casteel, a Nassau County resident, said she lost her vehicle in the fire, and she was finally able to retrieve it over the weekend. She said she looked at her MAZDA app and saw that it had been moved for the first time in a month.
“Frustrated, Sometimes angry,” Casteel said.
Nearly 50 cars were damaged, the airport was temporarily closed, and people’s plans had to change at a moment’s notice.
Casteel’s car was on the fourth floor of the hourly parking garage, using the valet company SP+ for her trip.
The fire happened on May 16, but Casteel said she didn’t get a phone call until May 18 from the valet company while she was away. In fact, she said the way she found out her car was on the fourth floor and damaged was by seeing it on the news.
She said lives over 30 minutes away in Nassau County, but was told to Uber or Lyft.
After several phone call and follow-ups, she came to a damaged, smoked back to her car, which had been moved by a crane.
On Saturday, she was able to go see her car in person and she took photos.
Despite the situation being an obstacle for her, she’s made a group of friends online in similar situations.
“We actually created a little private Facebook group so we could share information with one another, and, you know, oddly enough, I’ve made a couple of really great friends through that I guess, if you want to, you know, make lemonade out of these lemons,” Casteel said.
Even though Casteel is getting some answers, she has been renting a vehicle in the meantime, and it’s putting a dent in her wallet.
“It’s an expense, even if they reimburse me. It’s already $1,700 for the first 20-something days of a rental car that’s on my credit card right now, while I’m trying to buy a house. So it’s, you know, it’s just a lot of things,” Casteel said.
News4JAX reached out to the airport for comment on the latest update, and we received this statement over the weekend:
“All vehicles parked on the compromised 4th floor roof of the Hourly Garage have been safely relocated. Approximately 15 vehicles remain on the third floor and will be removed once shoring of the third floor is safely completed. We anticipate this will happen in a phased approach over the next two weeks.”
The Airport Authority board is scheduled to meet this Wednesday at 8:30 a.m. to discuss the hourly parking garage reconstruction budget.
