I would hate to be the insurance company on the end of writing that check.

They are stacked up like this in Orlando too. I rode down the street last week where they are parked. 1,000's upon 1,000's of them just sitting there.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/air...-over-194711675.html

A fire over the weekend at Southwest Florida International Airport destroyed over 3,500 rental cars that were being stored in a grassy field.

The fire started on Friday at the airport in Fort Myers, Florida, and was at first dubbed the "20 car fire" by local authorities. The fire later spread to over 15 acres, according to local outlet WINK.

Over 3,800 rental cars were undamaged, the report said.

Melinda Avni of the Florida Forestry Service told CNN that by the time authorities were on the scene to put out the fire, "we had 100 cars (on fire). We lost count after the hundreds."

The fire was contained and extinguished on Saturday, and the cause of the fire is under investigation.

Rental cars around the country have been put aside into overflow containment in parking lots and fields as traveling slows because of the coronavirus.

I have heard speculation that this was an insurance fraud thing.
That would be pretty bold.
More likely that a hot muffler started some drier grass on fire.

That was a always a big worry on wheat harvest. Always told to keep the gas burners off the wheat stubble.

Wow, just wow. Even at rental car prices, that would be about $70MM in cars. IT would be curious how they were insured.

quote:

The fire was contained and extinguished on Saturday, and the cause of the fire is under investigation.

Rental cars around the country have been put aside into overflow containment in parking lots and fields as traveling slows because of the coronavirus.

If your business is not doing well and it is insured, call "Murray The Torch" at 555-1212.

quote:

Originally posted by cheni:

More likely that a hot muffler started some drier grass on fire.

This was my thought too. We are well into our dry season down here and had an abnormally dry March - Ft. Myers had 0.02 inches for the month, and it’s been hot.

Let's see , where would someone park 1300 car's that would pretty much guarantee their total destruction.....?

So they come with a salvage title?

"Minor smoke damage"

Man, what a waste, tragic almost.

Damn Chinese Communists and their viruses!

HK Ag

In a former career, I financed agriculture. One of my products was hay fire insurance. ranchers need hay to feed cattle during the winter and the loss of their hay crop would be devastating. Rule number one was to spread your hay stacks out so if a fire starts, damage would be mitigated.

These guys forgot rule number one.

Mike

Did they, um, park in tall grass?

With the rental car business in the dumps, they probably arranged to have them parked off site for temporary storage. Grassy fields near an airport would be ideal.

Aren't most Car Rental companies self-insured ? Or maybe that is just for accident type stuff ?

Lots of rental cars in FL, with people not travelling they have to be stored somewhere, I'd bet it was a hot converter, we've had one day of rain here in the past 4 weeks.

A burn ban is in effect statewide. Hurricane season will cure that but it's a while off.

The article also states 3800 cars were not impacted, and most likely it's cars from every companies fleet..

quote:

Originally posted by mcrimm:
In a former career, I financed agriculture. One of my products was hay fire insurance. ranchers need hay to feed cattle during the winter and the loss of their hay crop would be devastating. Rule number one was to spread your hay stacks out so if a fire starts, damage would be mitigated.


Mike

same thing happened at Pearl Harbor

parked all the land-based planes close together so they'd be easier to guard

actually just made the work easy for the Japanese pilots


------------------------------------------

hope they took their own advice at the counter and spent the $20 per day for the Loss Damage Waiver (LDW) coverage.

Oh, wait....

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
Lots of rental cars in FL, with people not travelling they have to be stored somewhere, I'd bet it was a hot converter, we've had one day of rain here in the past 4 weeks.

A burn ban is in effect statewide. Hurricane season will cure that but it's a while off.

The article also states 3800 cars were not impacted, and most likely it's cars from every companies fleet..

The news article I saw mentioned cars from at least 3 different rental companies, and a $60 million loss. I live in SE Florida and it has been VERY DRY. I agree it probably was a hot catalytic converter.....or perhaps a Tesla or Prius whose batteries grenaded in the hot sun...……...

Did they find what's left of Howard Saint?

Anyone up for a fire sale?

Wonderful reporting, huh? Not one mention made or question asked about possible causes of the fire. What does it take credentials wise today to be a reporter? A GED?

The number of rental cars stacked up in a number of fields just off Orlando International property right now would make the number of cars in South Florida look like a McDonald's parking lot.