A
fire engulfed Kenya’s main airport on Wednesday, forcing the suspension
of international passenger flights and choking a vital travel gateway
to east Africa.
The country’s anti-terror police boss
said he did not believe that there was a terror link to the fire even
though it coincided with the 15th anniversary of a twin attack by
Islamist militants on the United States embassy in Nairobi and Dar es
Salaam, the commercial capital of neighboring Tanzania.
Authorities said they will on Thursday
begin preparing the airport’s domestic terminal, which escaped the
blaze, for handling international flights, using tents to create extra
space. Domestic flights had resumed by Wednesday evening, and
outward-bound cargo flights were due to resume hours later.
The raging blaze engulfed the terminal
buildings and lit up the early morning sky, sending billowing clouds of
black smoke rising in a plume that was visible from miles away.
The intense heat repeatedly drove back
firefighters who battled for five hours to put out the fire, the worst
on record at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, east Africa’s busiest.
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