A parking lot attendant spotted the flames and flagged down an SFO police officer shortly after midnight at the outdoor, long-term lot.
With all the cars parked so closely to each other, it's lucky someone spotted the flames -- so the damage didn't spread even further. An airport duty manager says the fire started in one car, and then spread to half a dozen others, burning mostly the engine compartments and front-ends of the cars. That's because they're all parked head-to-head in the stalls.
The car where the fire started is a total loss and it does appear suspicious. Investigators do plan to review surrounding surveillance video to see if the cameras captured anything unusual.
"We have cameras out here unfortunately they were not focused on this part of the lot it was just on the garage structure and just on the entrance and exit lanes here. We will see if we can look at anything else from security that we can look at.," said SFO Spokesperson Mike McCarron.
The car in which the fire began is believed to have been parked here since July 13th. Investigators will be looking at license plates of people who entered and exited the lot before this fire began.
All the cars are being towed away now until passengers return home. Those returning from their travels are not going to be pleased to discover their cars gone and to be confronted with this damage.
SFO plans to notify the registered owners, so hopefully those passengers will find out before they return.
