Luton Airport: No sprinklers went off in car park say fire fighters - who believe building is 'unsalvageable'

No sprinkler systems went off in the five-storey car park at Luton Airport as a car fire spread, say firefighters.

And hundreds of cars were destroyed in the “severe and rapidly spreading” blaze, at the building in which 1,500 vehicles were parked.

They believe the inferno, which began just before 9pm last night (October) 10 burned so hot that the car park building is unsalvageable and will eventually be demolished.

Floors have already collapsed inside during the massive blaze, the first reports of which arrived at 8.47pm. Fire engines arrived at the scene within 10 minutes.

A diesel car on the third floor is believed to have triggered the blaze.

Footage captured a vehicle exploding through the concrete structure.

More than 100 firefighters battled the flames and three were hospitalised due to the effects of smoke inhalation, one was treated at the scene for the same.

The flames soared well over the 600 degrees Celsius that would destroy the building's integrity, and one fire officer said it will have hit over six million watts.

A fire officer from London, who attended the scene in the early hours, said they could not now get inside the building to figure out the extent of the damage.

Speaking outside the partially burned-out car park, he said: "We can't get close enough to see. It's too dangerous, it will probably fall down on you, so they will probably do an insurance job and bring it all down."

Another officer, who would not be named, added that the loud bangs audible in videos circulated via social media would have been fuel tanks, tyres, and EV tanks.

Andrew Hopkinson, chief fire officer of Bedfordshire Fire Services, said there was nothing to indicate that it was anything other than an accident.

Speaking at the scene, he said: “On arrival my officers were faced with a severe and rapidly spreading fire involving a large number of vehicles that ultimately spread to multiple floors and involved a partial collapse of the car park.

“We don’t believe it was an electric vehicle. It’s believed to be diesel-powered, at this stage all subject to verification. And then that fire has quickly and rapidly spread."

He later added: "All the investigations after do suggest it was an accident. A car fire can start in all sorts of ways, it can be a leaky fuel line, it can be an electrical fault. But all of that, we've got nothing to indicate that it was anything other than an accident.

"Our focus was not only to tackle the fire, but to make sure that the premise was empty.

"My expectation is the reason [the four firefighters] will have got smoke inhalation is, as you've seen from the films on social media, the large volumes of smoke. We were also firefighting from downwind.

"The important thing is, it was mild smoke inhalation, three of them had treatment at the hospital and they were discharged.

"I've not seen any indication at the moment of any unusual fire spread that would be attributed to anything that I wouldn't expect from a building open all sides, in an exposed location, full of vehicles.

"The car park capacity is just over 1,900, we believe it is just short of 1,500 cars inside at the time the fire started.

"A significant proportion of those will have been damaged or destroyed, either through the fire itself or when the floors at the back at the building collapsed.

"Once the building became unstable we withdrew and adopted what we call defensive tactics. It's not safe for us to go in the building until that building is made safe.

"The investigation will take probably days or weeks, we will establish that in due course.

"It started on floor three and extended effectively upwards, and then collapsed all the way down. Members of the public, that was the initial focus, with the airport fire force as well, was to tackle the fire but get everybody out as well. No injuries reported at the time."

Transport from Luton Airport Parkway rail station has been cut, and the roads have been closed, forcing travellers to embark on an over-one mile uphill walk with their luggage.

A yellow firefighting hose has been left on the empty road.