London Luton Airport: Car Park 2 Incident Review
On 10 October 2023, Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Service were called to a major incident in London Luton Airport car park terminal 2 where a diesel car fire had spread to a large number of other vehicles in the building and led to the eventual partial collapse of the structure itself.
Significant Incident Report
Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Service (BFRS) has published a comprehensive report detailing the major fire at London Luton Airport’s Terminal Car Park 2. The report has been published on 9 October 2024.
The significant incident report outlines the scale of the operation, which required more than 100 firefighters at its height. Crews worked tirelessly to prevent the fire from spreading to the neighbouring car park, the multi-million-pound DART travel infrastructure, and aircraft. The incident, which led to widespread disruption at the airport, was managed without any serious injuries or fatalities.
The report identifies areas for improvement, particularly in fire safety measures for multi-storey car parks. If there had been a suitable sprinkler system, it may have changed and delayed the fire spread.
Major incident summary
Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Service received calls to a fire involving a car on level three of the multi-storey car park at London Luton Airport at 20:47 on 10 October 2023. Fire crews were faced with a rapidly escalating fire and declared a major incident at 21:38.
A severe fire rapidly spread through the structure and the severity of the fire has caused significant structural collapse. Firefighting operations were undertaken to control the blaze and protect nearby buildings, vehicles, aircraft, and the Luton DART.
At its peak there were 15 rescue pumps, three aerial appliances and more than 100 firefighters on scene at this incident. We would like to thank our fire colleagues from London Luton Airport Fire Service, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Northamptonshire, and London Fire Brigade along with Bedfordshire Police and East of England Ambulance for their support.
Investigation
Following the incident, BFRS have put together a Serious Incident Response task force who are conducting a full internal and multi-agency investigation and review into the cause, response and outcome of the incident. At this time, we can confirm the vehicle involved was a diesel-powered vehicle. To further clarify it was neither a fully electric vehicle (EV) nor a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV).
A fire investigation into the blaze that broke out in a multi-storey car park at London Luton Airport was accidental.
Following the fire, a multi-agency investigation took place between Bedfordshire Police and Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Service, which finished in March 2024.
As a result of the investigation, all evidence points to the most probable cause being an electrical fault or component failure, which started in the engine bay of the vehicle whilst it was in motion. The developing fire spread to other components, and whilst the owner of the vehicle attempted to fight the fire, the vehicle became overrun with flames and spread to other parked vehicles.
