Flights have been suspended until 3pm (on Wednesday October 11) and access to Luton Airport remains severely restricted after a large fire ripped through a multi-storey car park overnight, causing a ‘significant structural collapse’.
Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Service declared a ‘major incident’ at 9:38pm last night as the blaze, which has now been extinguished, could be seen raging in the top floor of the Terminal Car Park 2. It is believed that 1,500 vehicles may have been in the car park at the time of the fire and subsequently damaged.
By 10am on October 11, the fire services said they had ‘scaled back’ their operations and that the scene was ‘no longer a major incident’.
At its peak, there were over 100 firefighters on the scene, and crews are still on the scene, working to dampen down the area. A full fire investigation will take place to determine the cause of the fire as soon as it is safe to do so.
The BBC reported that Andy Hopkinson, Bedfordshire’s chief fire officer, said the service had “no intelligence to suggest it was anything other than an accidental fire”.
It is thought the fire started with a diesel car, and then spread through the car park.
In a statement during the night, the fire service said: ‘A severe fire rapidly spread through the structure and the severity of the fire has caused significant structural collapse.’
In an updated statement in the morning at 9am, the fire service said: ‘Crews have worked extremely hard throughout the night and into the early morning to control and extinguish the fire. Firefighting operations are monitoring the smoldering remains and will continue throughout the day.’
Access to the airport is currently severely restricted and people have been asked not to travel there.
For Lutonians and travellers on the roads in the town, Vauxhall Way is closed from Kimpton Road to Eaton Green Road until further notice. A diversion is in place via Crawley Green Road. However, Luton Council has asked that drivers try to avoid the area to ease congestion.
Buses are also unable to serve the airport terminal. Services A and 100 are operating up to Vauxhall, terminating at the Luton bound stop on Kimpton Road.
A social media statement at 9am from bus operator, Arriva Beds and Bucks, said: ‘With the ongoing issues at London Luton Airport there are major traffic delays in th’ area. We re experiencing some significant delays across our Luton network as a result. Please allow extra time for your journey.’
Last night, in a series of posts on X, formerly Twitter, at 12:14am Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Service wrote: ‘We are currently in attendance at a significant fire in a multi-storey car park involving numerous cars in Terminal Car Park 2 at @LDNLutonAirport First calls were received at 2047.
‘We have 15 fire appliances, and three specialist aerial appliances from across the county and surrounding counties in attendance and this has been declared a major incident by Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Service.
‘One half of the structure is fully involved in fire and the building has suffered a significant structural collapse.
‘Fire crews are working to extinguish the fire and prevent it from spreading to adjacent buildings and vehicles on air side of the airport.
‘Police and ambulance are in attendance.
‘Local residents are advised to close windows and doors and avoid the area.’
The East of England Ambulance Service attended but at 12:20am they posted on social media: ‘Critical incident now stood down, but we remain on-scene to support fire & rescue colleagues. 4 firefighters and 1 member of airport staff taken to Luton & Dunstable Hospital. 1 other patient discharged at-scene.’
For queries relating to a parked vehicle of a future booking, please contact luton.customerservices@apcoa.com.
Passengers should contact their airline for information regarding their flight.
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