Huge fire rips through Nairobi airport's international terminal

[SoCalDem]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/08/world/africa/huge-fire-shuts-down-nairobis-international-airport.html?_r=0


By REUBEN KYAMA and NICOLA CLARK
Published: August 7, 2013



NAIROBI, Kenya — The Kenyan authorities ordered the temporary closing on Wednesday of the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport here in Nairobi after a huge fire broke out and raged for four hours, officials and witnesses said. The blaze spread to the international arrivals area, bringing East Africa’s busiest airport to a standstill and turning parts of it into charred ruins.

The fire sent dense black smoke billowing into the sky.

By midafternoon, Michael Kamau, a senior government transportation official, told reporters that the airport had been partially reopened for domestic and cargo flights, but that international passenger traffic was still suspended. The airport authorities planned to convert another part of the facility to a temporary terminal for international passenger flights, he said.

The blaze sent a plume of black smoke that was visible from Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, a few miles away, witnesses said. Visiting the gutted section of the circular, 1960s-era terminal, Kenya’s president, Uhuru Kenyatta, said there was no loss of life but expressed dismay over the damage and the disruption the blaze had caused to air travelers, said Manoah Esipisu, a presidential spokesman. The cause of the fire was being investigated, he added. Kenya is a crucial Western ally, abutting troubled areas of neighboring Somalia. But Mr. Kenyatta and other Kenyan officials were reluctant to make any immediate link to terrorism. Wednesday, Aug. 7, is the anniversary of the 1998 coordinated bombings of United States Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, attacks that killed more than 200 people.

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[Liberal_in_LA]

1. omg.

[JCMach1]

2. Been through that terminal dozens of times... I can't imagine it was an accident

today was the 15th anniversary of the Nairobi and Tanzania embassy bombings by Al Quaeda...