Luton Airport fire: Up to 100 cars to be removed -it is ‘getting closer’ to making final decision on car park

Around 100 cars on the top deck of Luton Airport’s car park that went up in flames will be removed, the airport has announced. The airport said the vehicles will be stored in a “safe” compound and customers will be contacted to ensure a recovery process takes place.

Customers will then be able to assess the condition of their vehicles. Speaking on the new update, a spokesperson for London Luton Airport said the airport is “getting closer every day to making a final decision on what is going to happen to the car park and the vehicles contained within it.”

A fire ripped through the airport’s Terminal Car Park 2 on Tuesday 10 October leaving many holidaymakers stranded and destroying up to 1,500 cars. The blaze, which escalated quickly, also damaged around 1,200 vehicles and grounded hundreds of flights. Flights were suspended until 3pm the following day after the blaze had begun.

The spokesperson added that the airport plans to remove the cars “for the purposes of stabilising the structure”, but assessment of all the other vehicles in the car park will “remain largely unchanged. The spokesperson said: "The structure remains fundamentally unsafe and the adverse weather over the last few days hasn’t helped. We would like to thank customers for their ongoing patience and understanding as we work our way through this complicated and challenging situation."

Bedfordshire Police has announced that a man in his 30s has been arrested in connection with the blaze. He was arrested on suspicion of criminal damage last week and has been released on bail while enquiries continue.

Investigators believed the blaze was started when a diesel car, thought to be a Range Rover, suffered an electrical fault or leaking fuel line. Andrew Hopkinson, chief fire officer for Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Service, said the fire at the airport started with a diesel vehicle and the car park was also not fitted with sprinklers.

AA technical expert Greg Carter added that the most common cause of car fires is an electrical fault with the 12-volt battery system. Mr Carter said diesel is "much less flammable" than petrol, and in a car it takes "intense pressure or sustained flame" to ignite diesel. The airport said it has responded to almost 16,500 customer queries since the fire. In a statement the airport said it was “unlikely that any vehicles in the car park will be salvageable” but this was “still in the process of being assessed”.