Car park fire shuts London airport

All flights from London's Luton Airport were suspended until Wednesday afternoon after a huge fire broke out in the airport's multistory car park on Tuesday night, leaving it at risk of collapse.

The BBC reported that as many as 1,200 vehicles may have been parked there at the time, with local fire services saying it had suffered a "significant structural collapse".Chief Fire Officer Andrew Hopkinson said there was "no intelligence to suggest it's anything other than an accidental fire that started in one of the vehicles".

More than 15 crews from Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Service tackled the flames, with residents being told to keep their windows shut to avoid the smoke. Four firefighters and one airport staff member needed hospital treatment.

CCTV images shared on social media claiming to be from the car park depicted a dramatic explosion and subsequent collapse. In daylight on Wednesday morning, the extent of the devastation was clear.

Eyewitness Russell Taylor told ITV News the blaze spread extremely fast.

"There were a couple of fire engines with a car ablaze on the upper floor of the car park at just after 9 pm," he said.

"A few minutes later, most of the upper floor was alight, car alarms were going off with loud explosions from cars going up in flames … the speed in which the fire took hold was incredible."

Travel industry commentator Simon Calder told the BBC that the disruption was going to be "a nightmare for tens of thousands of passengers", in addition to 10 flights being canceled and 23 diverted on Tuesday night.

Travel plans impacted

"Much worse in terms of sheer scale are the 240 cancellations that we will see even if Luton is able to start operations on schedule at 15:00," he said.

"I have calculated that there are between 40,000 and 50,000 people who will have their travel plans wrecked today."

Thousands of travelers faced disruption as all flights were suspended on Wednesday at the airport.

Luton, which is London's fourth airport after Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted, is approximately 55 kilometers north of the city center. In 2019, Luton was used by about 18 million passengers on flights to and from more than 30 countries across Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.

"Passengers are advised not to travel to the airport at this time, as access remains severely restricted," the airport said in a message posted on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday morning.

"Passengers should contact their airline for information regarding their flight."

Firefighting operations were underway to dampen down the area, the fire service said early on Wednesday, adding that the crew would continue to be on the scene "for a number of hours".

At the peak of the blaze, there were 15 rescue pumps, three aerial appliances and over 100 firefighters on scene.

A full fire investigation will take place, it added.

Agencies contributed to this story.