Several rented vehicles returned by President Joe Biden's Secret Service detail burned in the parking lot of the Nantucket Memorial Airport in Massachusetts on Monday morning, according to video obtained by a local newspaper there.
"A large car fire involving multiple rental vehicles at Nantucket Memorial Airport is now out," the Nantucket Current posted Monday morning on Twitter. "There were no injuries reported but at least four cars sustained significant damage."
The five involved vehicles, a Chevy Suburban, a Ford Explorer, an Infiniti QX80, a Ford Expedition, and a Jeep Gladiator, all had their front ends "totaled" by the fire and were towed from the scene, the news outlet reported.
Biden's security detail had rented the vehicles from Hertz at the airport to use during the president's Thanksgiving holiday visit and returned them before flying back to Washington, D.C. with Biden, sources told the news outlet.
According to the thread on Twitter, the fire might have started in the battery of the Ford Expedition, which was on a recall list, but had not yet been changed.
The vehicles were parked front to front in the lot just 40-feet away from the airport's 25,000-gallon jet fuel tank.
In a statement to the newspaper, Assistant Airport Manager Noah Karberg said the fire was detected on closed circuit television at 5:22 a.m. ET on Monday in the rental car overflow lot.
"At approximately 5:22 a.m., airport shift staff observed an active car fire in the rental car overflow area through the airport's closed circuit television system," the statement said. "Staff activated the alert system and responded to the fire in [lot] Airport-3, where they were met by responding units from Nantucket Fire Department and Nantucket Police Department."
He said in the statement the units contained the fire and the airport was coordinating with its rental car agencies to ensure scene safety.
The fire did not disrupt the operation of airport, he said.
The airport served more than 22,000 passengers in Fiscal Year 2022, and more than 20,000 the prior year, according to the airport's operations report.
Ironically, Biden visited the Nantucket Fire Department on Thanksgiving, delivering holiday pies to the first responders
"I want to say thanks to the firefighters and police officers, first responders. They never take a break," The president said during a call during NBC's coverage of the Macy's annual holiday parade. "We remember them every single day."
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