Russell Taylor, 41, had just flown in from Edinburgh when he saw it. “There were a couple of fire engines with a car ablaze on the upper floor of the car park at just after 9pm,” the account director from Kinross told PA. “A few minutes later most of the upper floor was alight, car alarms were going off with loud explosions from cars going up in flames.”
It was Tuesday night at Luton Airport. By Wednesday afternoon, a car park had partly collapsed, flights had been shut down for about 18 hours, and tens of thousands of passengers had been caught up in it.
The fire
Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Service got a report of a car fire on level three of Terminal Car Park 2 at 8.47pm. Chief fire officer Andrew Hopkinson said his crews arrived to “a severe and rapidly spreading fire involving a large number of vehicles that ultimately spread to multiple floors and involved a partial collapse of the car park.” He said it is believed to have started with a diesel-powered vehicle, and that nothing suggests it was deliberate.
Up to 1,500 vehicles were inside, he said. The fire service’s own early estimate was 1,200. The structure had no sprinklers, and Hopkinson said they “may have made a positive impact.” He added that talks were already under way with the airport about fitting sprinklers in current and future car parks.
The fire was declared a major incident. Fifteen fire appliances and more than 100 firefighters worked through the night. Three firefighters and a member of airport staff went to hospital with smoke inhalation, and another firefighter was treated at the scene. Neighbours were told to keep their windows shut.
Stranded
Flights stopped from about 9pm Tuesday until 3pm Wednesday. PA news agency analysis of flight data sites found at least 150 flights due to take off or land were cancelled, and 27 arrivals were diverted as far as Cardiff, Liverpool and Manchester. Its figures suggested more than 30,000 passengers had their journeys disrupted.
Agnieske Szmit, 44, and her Polish family slept on the terminal floor and on benches after their flight home to Gdansk was cancelled on Tuesday night. “We missed our work today, the children should be at school,” she said. Staff, she said, tried to evacuate them but did not say where: “just go outside and follow the crowds.”
A group of eight Polish university students waited more than nine hours after their early-morning departure was scrapped. “We are tired, and we have spent the whole night here,” said Nikodem Lesiak, 18. “When we got here, we found out Luton is burning and everything is closed.”
Cristina Cristea, 25, from Towcester, landed at around 8pm after her sister’s wedding in Romania. Her car was stuck in Terminal Car Park One, next to the burning building. “At first we thought it was shotguns or something as we couldn’t see any flames, then we saw what happened,” she said.
After the flames
A temporary ramp was being installed to get undamaged vehicles out. The Dart light rail link between the airport and Luton Airport Parkway station was to stay closed even after the runway reopened. The car park had opened in 2019 as part of a modernisation programme costing tens of millions of pounds.
The Association of British Insurers said fire damage is covered by comprehensive and third-party fire and theft policies, but it was too early to put a figure on the insured cost.
Sources
- Luton Airport fire: Flights resume but tens of thousands of passengers disrupted
- Flights resume at Luton Airport after car park inferno
- Luton Airport fire – live: Flights suspended for most of day as 40,000 passengers affected
