‘Lots of Electric Vehicles Potentially Involved’: Flights Diverted as Airport Parking Engulfed in Flames

A fire crew commander said “lots of electric vehicles potentially involved” in the early stages of a major fire that has destroyed a parking garage at one of Britain’s major airports, disrupting travel.

A large multi-storey carpark at London Luton airport which is said to have contained over 1,000 cars suffered a structural failure and partially collapsed during a fire Tuesday evening into Wednesday, the blaze rapidly spreading between the tightly packed vehicles and causing them to explode. Flights continue to be delayed, suspended, and redirected, on Wednesday and the public has been told to not travel to the airport if they were expecting to travel before mid-afternoon.

The fire brigade has said they do not believe the blaze is suspicious and say it appears to have been started by a diesel car combusting, but a crew commander who responded to the blaze told the BBC the presence of many electric cars at the building may have been an early factor in the fire spreading. He is reported to have said there were “lots of electric vehicles potentially involved quite early on… The cars were parked very close, next to each other. So unfortunately that was probably the reason for the rapid fire spread”.

Efforts are still ongoing to extinguish a serious fire at Luton Airport. We are continuing to protect surrounding airport infrastructure, vehicles and the Luton DART. For anyone whose travel plans may be affected, please refer to the advice being provided by London Luton Airport. pic.twitter.com/tNFo4hvRdX

— Beds Fire and Rescue (@BedsFire) October 11, 2023

An eyewitness who spoke to the broadcaster spoke of vehicles exploding, and said of his experience: “it didn’t look that bad initially… but suddenly there was an explosion, and there was a massive gout of flame that shot across the carpark like a flamethrower. Then cars were exploding”.

Describing the fire as it happened, Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Service said the fire was “rapidly escalating” and had been declared a major incident on Tuesday night, requiring 15 pumps and 100 firefighters drawn from five brigades.

The car park is not reported to have had a fire suppression system installed and is now thought to have been damaged beyond the point where it could be repaired, and will have to be demolished. Five people were injured, four of them firemen.

Many cars were not damaged in the blaze but are trapped as the main exit has been destroyed, and work is underway to cut a temporary access into the building to clear it.