Though we aren’t buried in snow like much of the rest of the country, we started the day in the greater New York City area in the single digits. It’s mighty cold out, but at New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International Airport, the cars are staying nice and toasty.


Because they are on fire.



Seventeen cars—all but two of them totaled—burned this morning at a parking lot at Newark Airport. The cause of the fire is still under investigation, though one of the car’s owners told police he’d done some recent work on his alternator, a possible cause of the blaze, according to NBC New York.


That owner was also, somewhat strangely, arrested at the scene for outstanding traffic warrants and having a suspended license. He was in the airport at the time of the fire; when he got word of it he rushed to the scene.

NBC New York has more:

A law enforcement source tells News 4 a total of 17 cars were burned, all but two of them totaled. A cause of the fire is under investigation, but it appears to have started in one of the vehicles that was toasted — and the owner of that vehicle, who heard about the fire while in the airport and came to check, was arrested, a law enforcement source says. He’s not charged in connection with the fire, but for outstanding traffic warrants and a suspended driver’s license. That man’s name hasn’t been released, but the law enforcement source says he told cops he was working on his alternator a few weeks ago — and authorities are looking into that as a possible cause for the vast fire that consumed the lot.

Video of the blaze showed a lot of flames and smoke:




There were no injuries except to the cars— 15 of them . Car fires happen much, much more than we really talk about, and I can only hope everyone here had up-to-date insurance.