Fire-ravaged Luton Airport car park likely to be demolished

Up to 1,500 cars were inside the car park when the fire broke out on 10 October

An airport car park holding 1,500 vehicles that partially collapsed after a major fire is likely to be demolished, airport bosses said.

Luton Airport said a full investigation was under way to review "every aspect" of what happened.

Flights were suspended after the fire ripped through Terminal Car Park 2 on 10 October.

Ollie Jaycock, Luton Airport director of corporate affairs, said the first priority was "safety".

"We've had a structural assessment undertaken, it's been deemed to be unsafe so we can't allow people to walk around it in its current condition," Mr Jaycock said.

"The work that's ongoing is to work with the relevant experts to determine whether or not any cars can be removed from the car park and therefore offer that possibility of retrieving personal belongings.

"It's unlikely any vehicle will be salvageable - but we haven't given up hope.

"We suspect that the car park will be demolished, whether total or partial, that's all part of the next stage."

Investigations into the cause were being led by the emergency services, and would "review every aspect of those car parks to how that fire began and spread to how it was contained", he said.

He acknowledged the new pick-up and drop-off point located at the mid-stay car park, about a 10-minute walk to the terminal, was "not perfect" but as everything was "complex and fast-moving", alterations and improvements were being made on a day-to-day basis.

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The Dart shuttle service remains shut, as it runs parallel "to one of the sides of the car park badly burnt", but could reopen within days, he said.

Mr Jaycock said there were "no issues with the Dart" but a team had begun work to prop up one side of the car park.

The full cost of the damage was not yet known, but would not affect the finances of Luton Rising or Luton Council, Mr Jaycock said.

The airport confirmed the first section of the car park would be made safe and stable by the end of the week.

All car registration plate details have been confirmed and passed on to the Motor Insurers' Bureau (MIB), it added.

The car park has been handed back from the fire service to the airport operators LLA

Beki Cozens, from Norfolk, had parked on the top floor of Car Park 2 while she was with her son, who is training with the Paralympic Ski Programme in Lithuania.

She said when she found what happened to her car "my heart just dropped".

Airport officials had been in touch, she said, and she would not be charged for the stay - and her insurance company had already paid her to replace the vehicle, she said.

One sentimental item, a "whole walnut", was in the car, that she would love to get back as it was the last thing her father, who died four years ago, gave her.

"Do you know if I get that walnut back it will be gold plated," she said.