Police Scooter Catches Fire Inside Dulles Airport, Prompts Evacuation

A battery-powered three-wheel police vehicle caught fire Saturday evening inside the departures area near the EgyptAir counters of Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD), creating short-term chaos before the fire was eventually extinguished. The fire started around 7:30 p.m. Eastern time and burned for about 90 minutes before being fully extinguished at approximately 9 p.m. local time at which point the terminal was reopened. 

The vehicle in question was unmanned and used solely to patrol the departures area of the famed Eero Saarinen departure hall at the airport.  The incident prompted a terminal evacuation as the smoke spread briefly throughout the terminal. During the evacuation, passengers had to wait outside as crews extinguished the flames. 

The cause of the fire is unclear, but fortunately, no injuries occurred as a result of the incident. Two airport authority police officers were transported to the hospital to be checked, but no injuries were officially reported and the police officers are expected to be okay. 

Given the size of Dulles Airport and the location of the fire, the disruption could have been quite a bit worse and fortunately the fire did not spread throughout the terminal at all. Disruptions to flights were minimal as only a small section of the terminal was closed off for ventilation to be performed.

For now, the airport remains safe and investigations are ongoing to determine the cause of the fire. These sorts of incidents are exceedingly rare and indeed most airports don't have three-wheeled vehicles patrolling major areas of the airport.