Firefighters were on the scene this morning at the Guam International Airport which was evacuated as a precaution.
A witness, who didn’t want to be identified, reported smelling and seeing smoke prior to the evacuation.
The witness said: “The smoke started around 7:40 a.m. … then we evacuated the food court area not too long after that. The airport was fully evacuated around 8 a.m. The fire department just showed up.”
The Guam Fire Department confirmed that GFD units responded to the airport to assist with the evacuation of staff and customers and with ventilation of the facility after a moving walkway in the terminal began emitting smoke. No fire or injuries were reported.
John Q. Quinata, deputy general manager of the Guam airport, told the Patti Arroyo show on K57 that the all-clear has already been given and everything is back to normal.
“Everything is now good. Everyone is safe and everything is accounted for. We’re back in business,” Quinata said.
According to Quinata, one of the motors in the airport’s “walkalator” in Gate 10 started overheating resulting in the smoke emission.
“There was no fire, just smoke. But for the safety of everyone, we evacuated the building. We now have the Otis folks working on the walkalator,” Quinata said.
He added that the incident did not affect any outgoing or incoming flight.
“We were fortunate that the airport was not busy when this happened. This would have been a different story if it happened during peak hours,” Qunata said.
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