Tampa Fire Rescue revealed what caused the two-alarm fire at the Grand Hyatt hotel parking garage that left multiple cars with significant damage Monday. Firefighters responded just before 1 p.m. to the garage at 2900 Bayport Drive to find multiple cars on fire on the second floor. Crews brought the fire under control within an hour and discovered 10 vehicles with “significant damages.”
In an update on Tuesday, fire officials identified a 2015 Dodge Caravan as the cause of the fire. According to Tampa Fire Rescue, the car had undergone prior engine repair work and caught fire within the garage. “The van was the initial point of origin and extended to nine adjacent vehicles,” fire officials said.
Structural engineers are still working to determine the extent of the damage the parking garage sustained. “Because the fire was so intense, by the time our crews arrived on scene, the make and the model of what cars were involved are hard to determine at this time,” Capt. Henry Williams with Tampa Fire Rescue said on the scene. “This was a very labor-intensive operation. We had multiple crews fighting fire from multiple angles of the building.”
Williams explained that it was a difficult scene as firefighters could not get trucks up to the second floor and instead had to use two fire trucks in a pickup format to battle the flames.
“We actually have to pull the hose and drag it manually up the stairs, up to the stand pipes, connect it and as it is occurring, multiple vehicles are catching fire,” Williams said. “We heard several tires popping, those mini explosions, because of that, it is a labor-intensive operation, which is why we did request a second alarm.”
