London Luton Airport car park fire: Passengers sleep on the floor after flights cancelled

A woman whose car was stuck in an airport's destroyed multi-storey car park says she saw the huge fire take hold soon after her flight landed.

Cristina Cristea, from Towcester in Northamptonshire, is among hundreds whose cars are still inside London Luton Airport's multi-storey, which "partially collapsed" after the blaze tore through the building on Tuesday night.

Some of the disrupted passengers had to sleep on the floor of the airport and claim they were told to go outside instead.

Ms Cristea, 25, had been at her sister’s wedding in Romania and landed back at Luton at around 8pm on Tuesday, before she began hearing sirens.

“By the time we came out of the airport it was 9.10pm and we heard more noises and saw flames,” said Ms Cristea.

Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Service said early investigations revealed the car park did not have a sprinkler system and the fire was caused by a diesel car.

Over 30,000 passengers have been affected after all outbound flights were suspended and inbound flights diverted until 3pm, with more disruption expected over the coming days.

Ms Cristea said her car had been unaffected by the fire, but was stuck in terminal car park one, next to car park two where the fire broke out.

Ms Cristea said she had paid to stay in a local hotel overnight, but had missed a day of work and was told around lunchtime that no cars would be able to come out of the car park for the next three hours.

Workers are building a new exit ramp to get undamaged cars out of the car parks.

Pictures from the scene show the burnt-out shells of the hundreds of cars which were on the affected floors.

Among the passengers who spent the night on the terminal floor were a Polish family who were finishing their holiday to London.

Gregorz Szmit, 46, said their flight to Gdansk should have departed at 9.50pm on Tuesday and is now scheduled to leave at 7.30pm on Wednesday.

Mr Szmit, who is waiting with his wife and their two sons aged seven and 15, said: “We were on holiday for five days to visit London – British Museum, Trafalgar Square.

“This is our first journey to England, to London. It’s been an adventure.”

Agnieske Szmit, 44, said they slept on the floor of the terminal building and on benches.

"They tried to evacuate us but they didn’t say where, just [to] go outside and follow the crowds,” she said. "It was cold outside.”

Another passenger affected by the fire was Chris Meacey, 57, from Oxfordshire.

Mr Meacey, a forces and police retiree, was trying to travel to Slovakia. He parked his van on level one of car park two on Tuesday afternoon, before checking into a hotel to catch an early morning flight on Wednesday.

But his flight was cancelled and, although safe and undamaged, his van is now stuck.

Mr Meacey said he was "one of the lucky ones" in being able to promptly rebook his outbound flight for Thursday instead.

"When you see the people walking around and children crying, it's upsetting," he said.

"From our point of view though, we've had to pay out for hotels, but we're still alive and we're still breathing, we'll get by."

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