New Details Emerge In Pittsburgh International Airport Smoke Scare

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Authorities have released some new information on a smoke scare at Pittsburgh International Airport.

Officials say it was caused by a cigarette that was found in an airport bathroom.

The bomb squad was called, Concourse D was evacuated and airplanes moved. It was all over what now looks like an employee from a contractor who dozed off in a secret sleeping place in the men's room.

"We're very fortunate it wasn't a worse fire than it was," said JoAnn Jenny, of the Allegheny County Airport Authority. "There was a lot of charring discovered over there. Unfortunately, it's turning into a case of smoking in the boy's room."

Sources confirm to KDKA's Marty Griffin that police found a satchel with a sleeping mat in it, along with it 200 cigarette butts.

Investigators believe, and they say surveillance video confirms, a cleaning contractor employee snuck into a plumbing area inside the men's room, smoked, fell asleep, got up and left a smoldering cigarette.

"There was a plumbing access panel in the men's bathroom down there that had some charring around it and inside they found a satchel," said Jenny. "As it turned out, the bomb squad was called and the fire marshals were here and they continue to investigate it, but they've cleared the satchel. In the satchel was actually like a… it was a rolled up mat like a sleeping mat."

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