The cause of a large fire at a London Luton Airport car park has been attributed to a diesel-powered vehicle.
“We have no intelligence at this stage to suggest that this was anything other than an accidental fire that started in one of the vehicles that had not long arrived at the airport. It was not an EV,” Andrew Hopkinson, chief fire officer for Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Service told reporters on Wednesday morning, The Mirror reported.
He added: “This was a diesel-powered vehicle.”
According to the Independent, up to 1,500 vehicles may have been in the car park, which has a capacity of 1,900, at the time of the fire and subsequently damaged. The airport has suspended all flights until 3pm BST on Wednesday.
The newly-built car park building at the airport’s Terminal 2 partially collapsed after a fire broke out at around 9pm on Tuesday 10 October, Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Service said.
It was not known at the time if any passengers were trapped on the tarmac, inside the airport or in the Terminal 2 car park.
Between 40,000-50,000 passengers are thought to be affected by 273 suspended, cancelled or diverted flights.
More than 100 firefighters helped to combat the blaze, which was eventually distinguished this morning.
Four firefighters and an airport staff member were taken to hospital, the BBC reported.
London Luton is the UK’s fifth largest airport after Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester and Stansted, carrying more than 13 million passengers in 2022.