Fire smashes through multi-story car park at Luton Airport

All the flights at Luton Airport have been stopped until the afternoon because a big fire happened in the parking lot of one of the buildings on Tuesday evening.

Flights are stopped until 15:00 BST because a fire at the multi-storey building caused it to collapse significantly.

Bedfordshire Fire Service said that around 1,500 vehicles may have been in the car park and got damaged.

Four firefighters and a worker from the airport were brought to the hospital.

They were experiencing health problems because they were inhaling smoke. One more person got medical help at the place, but no major injuries have been reported.

People heard vehicle alarms and loud explosions. One person said the fire spread really quickly on the top floor of the car park.

The airport said that it is most important to help emergency services and keep passengers and staff safe. That’s why they stopped all flights.

Travel expert Simon Calder thinks that around 40,000 to 50,000 people will have their travel plans disrupted. The airport wants to fix the problem and get it back to normal as quickly as they can.
The fire service said that they believe the fire was an accident and it probably started in a vehicle that arrived shortly before 9:00 PM BST.

A person who was supposed to fly on a plane when a fire started said: “We were told to leave the plane because there was a problem. Then, we were stuck in the airport without any clear explanation. ”

Two hours later, someone informed them about a big problem and said they had to go out of the airport.

“It was a little confusing because the staff didn’t know exactly what they were supposed to do. ”

A video online shows really big flames and lots of smoke coming from the top level of the car park after a fire started just before 9:00 pm.

Bedfordshire Police have requested that people avoid going to the area.

One person said they saw something explode on top of the parking lot, and then a big flame shot across the parking lot like a flamethrower.

After that, he watched cars blowing up “every few minutes”.

Many people were stuck in Luton, unable to go home because their cars were in the parking lot.
Andy Hopkinson, who is in charge of the fire department in Bedfordshire, said they had no information to indicate that the fire was anything other than an accident.

He said that people believed the fire started with a diesel car and then spread throughout the car park.

He complimented his team and said that no members of the public were hurt.

Mr Hopkinson said that the car park, which can fit 1,900 cars, did not seem to have sprinklers.

He said that because the car park didn’t have walls, the fire could easily move across and then go up in the building.

Firefighters were staying at the location to keep an eye on the burning leftovers.