IAH Terminal C North Stayed Closed Wednesday After the Ember Kitchen Fire, and Some United Flights Moved Gates
Tuesday's one-alarm kitchen fire at the Ember restaurant was out in about an hour with no injuries - but Terminal C North stayed closed for cleanup into Wednesday, Houston Airports worked with United on the day's departures, and the fire's cause is still officially unconfirmed.
A kitchen fire at the Ember restaurant in Terminal C North of George Bush Intercontinental Airport sent a column of black smoke over the terminal on Tuesday afternoon and was still reshaping travel on Wednesday. The Houston Fire Department logged the call at about 4:21 p.m. as a 'terminal on fire' incident and sent a one-alarm response of 10 units; crews knocked the fire down by about 5:20 p.m., roughly an hour after arrival, according to the timeline compiled from HFD and Houston Airports updates. No injuries were reported among passengers, restaurant staff, airport workers or firefighters, and passengers near the restaurant were relocated as a precaution - the airport did not evacuate the whole of Terminal C.
United Airlines, whose hub operation fills Terminal C, described the blaze as a kitchen grease fire, and passenger accounts and air traffic control audio pointed to the restaurant's grease vent - smoke from the kitchen exhaust vented upward through the terminal roof, which matched early reports of a fire on the roof near Gates C3 and C14. The official cause, however, has not been confirmed: the HFD Arson Bureau is investigating the fire's origin, which is the bureau's standard work on fires of this kind, and no official has said the fire was deliberate. HFD had released no final cause as of Wednesday morning.
The operational footprint stayed small because the closure covered only one concourse section. Terminal C South and every other terminal at IAH remained open, no cancellations were reported, and United told FOX 26 the fire was not affecting its flights - though air traffic controllers did hold at least one departing aircraft while they worked out where the smoke was coming from, ABC13 reported. At the airport's 7:20 p.m. Tuesday update, HFD had finished its work but Terminal C North would stay closed for precaution and cleanup, and Houston Airports worked with United on Wednesday's departures: some United flights scheduled from Terminal C North gates are departing from other gates on October 28.
For Wednesday travelers, the advice from the airport coverage is practical: check the United app or united.com for the current gate before leaving home, check fly2houston.com for terminal updates, allow extra time if a flight has moved terminals, and look at the gate again on arrival because assignments can change during the day. The Ember fire was the second fire or smoke event at IAH in three days - on Saturday morning, October 24, passengers were evacuated from a United Express flight after smoke was reported inside the cabin, also with no injuries reported.
