Rental Cars Used By Secret Service Destroyed in Fire at Nantucket Airport

Two severely burned SUVs still parked side-by-side.

Two of the destroyed SUV in the airport parking lotPhoto: Nantucket Current

Multiple rental vehicles recently used by Secret Service agents went up in flames Monday morning in a parking lot at Nantucket Memorial Airport in Massachusetts. The Bidens were in Nantucket on their annual Thanksgiving vacation, and the Secret Service rented several SUVs and a pickup from Hertz for the stay. The Nantucket Current reported the rented vehicles were engulfed in flames less than a day after the Secret Service returned them. More concerning, the cars were burning 40 feet away from the airport’s jet fuel tanks.

Nantucket Memorial Airport stated that airport staff spotted the fire in the rental car overflow area at around 5:22 a.m. through the airport’s CCTV system. Local emergency services responded and extinguished the fire. Once the smoke cleared, five vehicles were completely destroyed and had to be towed away: a Chevrolet Suburban, a Ford Explorer, an Infiniti QX80, a Ford Expedition, and a Jeep Gladiator. All five vehicles were rented to the Secret Service. However, the Secret Service had nothing to do with the fire.

The official cause of the fire is still being investigated, but officials are focusing on the destroyed white 2021 Ford Expedition. The Expedition was subject to a recall because of a faulty circuit board in the battery junction box. The board is prone to shorting, leading to fires when the Expedition is parked and shut off. Sources told the Nantucket Current that the SUV was scheduled to be serviced, but had not been repaired.

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Regarding the nearby fuel farm, assistant airport manager Noah Karberg told the Current that there is concern about the close blaze, but he was also confident about the measure put in place to protect the tanks. He also stated that there are no plans to move the rental car overflow lot.

Over a dozen fires were confirmed to be caused by this faulty circuit board, but this particular fire is in the national spotlight because the President of the United States and the Secret Service are tied to it. It shows how relatively mundane car fires are despite the damage they can cause.