Luton Airport closed due to large car park fire tonight

Wonder if was started by an electric car battery malfunction? ( and then spread to petrol cars)

Horrible! Although Heathrow one week ago (Tuesday, October 7) was the single, most unpleasant experience my husband and I ever had there, in countless times in nearly 25 years, still, there wasn’t a massive fire. How terrible for Luton, passengers/would-be passengers, and the car owners.

That still doesn’t make Heathrow last week any better. Whining over (for now).

Cy, what happened at Heathrow? Do you mean Tuesday the 3d? We were there on Monday.

The airport remains closed this morning.
Part of the multi storey car park has collapsed.
Potentially 1200 cars lost.
All hotels are full, many people are stranded, some were deplaned as the fire took hold so presumably don't even have their luggage.

There was a similar incident at a car park in Liverpool a few years ago. There was a concert in the city, and hundreds of folk came out of the concert to find their car gone.

The airport closed until at least 1500 - 3pm - this afternoon at the moment....

This is an ongoing situation. At 0730 this morning the closure was until 1200, then by 0900 that had been extended to 1500, so time will tell. When they do re-open resources will be in the wrong place, so the effects will last at least the rest of the day.

The fire service say the fire started in a diesel car, not electric. Just like Liverpool the car park had no sprinklers and the design with open sides caused the rapid and destructive spread.

In any case, there are no data whatsoever suggesting that EVs catch fire at a higher rate than gasoline or diesel cars. Quite the opposite.

The airport has re-opened, and the first flights have taken off, after a just over 18 hour closure. There is CCTV footage of the fire starting.

According to recent reports it is unlikely that any of the cars parked will be salvageable.

Some 1,405 cars-

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-67117301

It is now confirmed that the car park has to be demolished- and that all but about 100 cars are unrecoverable.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-67313813

Has it been determined why the first car caught on fire? The owner offer any insight into what happened?

There was a photo ( early on ) that seemed to show the burning car in the middle of the aisle, making me wonder how it spread to so many other cars so rapidly.

Has arson been ruled out? or has the investigation not proceeded that far?

There has been no further details revealed beyond that it was a vehicle fault & a man in his 30s was arrested on suspicion of criminal damage in connection to the incident on 10 October as a "precaution" and was released later on bail.

No details released, but the vast majority of insurance claims for the cars have been settled.

The fire spread so fast because of the design of the car park, so many cars being in there and the total lack of any sprinklers or other fire suppression system. It is possible that damage was too severe for forensics to determine the exact original cause.

Given the almost identical fire in Liverpool a few years ago, it is to be hoped that there will now be an enquiry leading to retro-fitting of sprinkler systems in such car parks. To me it also brings construction methods into question given the structural collapse of the building, even given the intense temperatures generated.

I did wonder about arson at the time, given that it was built by the Buckingham Group- a construction company building several high profile projects, who went into administration earlier in the year- but there is no suggestion that my rather fanciful theory has any basis in fact.