Two-alarm fire prompts temporary evacuation at Lambert Airport

ST. LOUIS (UPI) — Firefighters in St. Louis extinguished a fire at Lambert International Airport that prompted evacuations Sunday morning.

The blaze began at 7:30 a.m. at the Southwest Airlines cargo terminal in the top copper layer and the underlying concrete structure in the roof of Terminal 1 of the airport, Jeff Lea with the St. Louis Lambert International Airport said, according to Missouri news station KMOV.

Lea added the area was evacuated of all passengers and staff for about two hours and the surrounding area was secured.

The fire caused some flight delays and cancellations as flights that had just arrived from Terminal 1 at the time of the blaze were stuck on the concourse.

Terminal 2 and other concourses were unaffected.

Passengers already on the planes were kept in the aircrafts and hundreds of other employees and passengers were ushered to a covered parking garage across the street from the terminal.

Officials said total of 100 firefighters from the St. Louis City Fire Department and 30 more from other St. Louis County agencies responded, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

“There was a tremendous and quick response from the St. Louis Fire Department and our mutual-aid agencies to quickly isolate, contain and put out the fire to minimize the damage and determine the terminal was safe to re-open,” airport director Rhonda Hamm-Niebruegge said. “We know this was a difficult fire to attack. They were operating on a sloped, copper roof, with snow.”

The blaze was extinguished at about 9:30 a.m. and no injuries were reported.

Reporting by Daniel Uria