Billowing black clouds of smoke probably aren’t exactly the most comforting sight when you glance out the airport window before boarding, but that’s exactly what travelers at Hong Kong International Airport saw this morning after a fire broke out at a construction site there.
Luckily, however, the apocalyptic-looking column of smoke wasn’t the sign of a horrible accident, HK01 reports, but rather the result of a relatively small fire that resulted in no injuries and did not require any evacuations.
According to on.cc, firefighters arrived at the scene at around 11am and were able to extinguish the fire within half an hour. An Airport Authority representative said that the fire happened on a construction site near the North Satellite Concourse of the airport.
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Still, the unsettling visual was quickly documented and disseminated, with pictures and videos circulating on the internet. In one video posted online, thick dark smoke can be seen erupting from the center of the under-construction building and filling the air.
Airport operations, however, were not affected, and firefighters are investigating the cause of the blaze.
Today’s incident wasn’t the first time a fire has broken out at the airport — in fact, it’s not even the first time this year.
Back in April some equipment on the construction site of the third runway caught fire, the SCMP reported at the time. Two months later, in June, a van burst into flames on the runway.
No one was harmed in either event and operations were similarly unaffected.
