Six teams of firefighters fought a blaze that broke out in Kuwait International Airport's under-construction Terminal 2, emergency services on scene told The National.
Col Mohammad Al Ghareeb from the public relations department of the Fire Force said the blaze began in the under-construction area of Terminal 2. A statement from authorities said the blaze began about 5.30am on Monday in a garage area.
They said it spread to the ground floor and a portion of the first floor of the huge new multi-billion dollar terminal building.
"Firefighting teams quickly contained the flames," the authorities said. There were no casualties and the fire only caused material damage.
Images and videos shared by first responders showed thick black smoke billowing from the new building.
Flight tracking data showed planes arriving at and departing from the airport throughout Monday morning. Several early morning flights took off with slight delays, but Kuwait's Directorate General of Civil Aviation said air traffic was normal and had “not been affected” by the fire.
Ahmad Saad Al Saleh, spokesman at the Ministry of Public Works, said a “limited fire” broke out in a section of the T2 project on Monday morning and firefighters were working to put out the blaze.
The $4.3 billion Terminal 2 construction will replace the existing building with a hub able to handle over 25 million passengers a year. It is expected to provide 15,000 jobs for Kuwaitis and Foster + Partners, the project architects, said building work was scheduled to be finished by August this year.
It is unclear if the fire will delay to the project's completion schedule.
Minister Rana Al Fares has said the new facility will offer a “major boost” to aviation in Kuwait, state news agency Kuna reported last year.
Once completed, the new terminal will have 28 gates, be able to accommodate 51 aircraft and have space for 5,000 cars to park, Mr Al Fares said.
