A fire engulfed Kenya’s main airport yesterday, forcing the suspension of international passenger flights and choking a vital travel gateway to east Africa.
Authorities said they will today begin preparing Nairobi airport’s domestic terminal, which escaped the blaze, for handling international flights, using tents to create extra space. Domestic flights and outward bound cargo flights were due to resume last night.
The raging blaze engulfed the terminal buildings and lit up the early morning sky, sending billowing clouds of black smoke rising in a plume that was 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, east Africa’s busiest.
We are now here illegally since we don’t have a visa and therefore can’t leave the airport
The devastating fire coincided with the 15th anniversary of a twin attack by Islamist militants on the United States embassy in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, the commercial capital of neighbouring Tanzania.
But there was no immediate evidence that the attack was linked to any militant groups.
Michael Kamau, cabinet secretary for transport, said an investigation would start immediately but 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, feared for their export-driven business, a leading source of foreign currency earnings for Kenya alongside tea exports and tourism.
The fire was also a blow to Kenya right at the start of the peak tourism season, a key sector for the Kenyan economy.
“This is disastrous,” Jane Ngige, chief executive officer of exporters association Kenya Flower Council, told Reuters.
There were no immediate reports of casualties from the fire, which started in the arrivals and immigration area. Business travellers and tourists were diverted to other airports.
Inside the gutted building, neat lines of metal trolleys with melted plastic handles were the only clear reminder that the building – whose roof partially collapsed – was once a terminal.
Some travellers searched for their luggage amid the charred ruins while staff from Western embassies waved their national flags to attract passengers looking for a place to stay.
“We are now here illegally since we don’t have a visa and therefore can’t leave the airport,” said Juan Cabrera, a French United Nations worker travelling to Zanzibar from Burundi with his wife and baby.
“I’m just wondering how I get back home or continue our trip. No one seems to know.”
International flights were diverted to Kenya’s port city of Mombasa. Plans were under way to divert other flights to Eldoret in the northwest and Kisumu in the west, as well as to neighbouring countries including Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda. Passengers faced bus trips of hundreds of miles to reach the Kenyan capital.