Washington Dulles Airport Evacuated As Police Segway Catches Fire

Two police officers were injured at Washington Dulles airport when a segway belonging to the airport’s Segway/T3 Patrol spontaneously caught fire. The departures level of the head house was evacuated for approximately 90 minutes while the fire department responded to the blaze and passengers stood outside of the terminal.

By around 9 p.m. the fire which began near the EgyptAir ticket counters was extinguished and smoke cleared, so passengers and airport staff were permitted to return into the terminal. Both officers were transported to the hospital, though injuries weren’t serious.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. Better fix the headline typo, Gary. It is an interesting thought, though. (I do it too.)

  2. Gary – people have to read this carefully & well past the intro paragraphs to know it happened yesterday and is not an ongoing situation real time at the time you posted. Suggest you clear this up before you send novice folks who may be flying from IAD this morning into a tizzy.

  3. “The departures level of the head house”…. Isn’t it called a Terminal? Never heard it referred to as a head house before!

  4. I don’t think that mobility device is a Segway product. I just checked the Segway website and didn’t see it. Segway is best known for their two-wheeled devices and the one that caught fire is clearly a tricycle.

  5. Airfares—It didn’t say it took 90 minutes to put out the fire. It said the terminal was evacuated for 90 minutes. It takes time to let the toxic gases to disperse.

  6. Despite its signature design by the famous Saarinen, IAD continues to combine the non-flair of FRA with the non-efficiency of CDG, with even more erratic combinations! Why? From its cumberson TSA ecalators and corrals to its expensive railway that misses concorses, and let’s not forget its historic people movers and mobile lounges, IAD has more and more bizarre events. I fly into or out of IAD from time to time, and it’s almost always a second-rate experience.

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