Luton Airport Fire: Cars on first three floors of carpark will not be recovered

Cars that were parked on or below the third level of the Luton Airport carpark that went up in flames will not be recovered, it's been announced.

The terminal 2 car park will be fully demolished following the fire on 10 October.

Investigations by Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Service revealed the fire started from a diesel car and the building did not have a sprinkler system.

Neil Thompson, Operations Director at London Luton Airport, said the past few weeks had been "extremely challenging".

"Regrettably, I can now confirm, that due to the extent of the structural damage, the car park will need to be fully demolished, and any cars parked on levels ground to three are not recoverable, ahead of the demolition work.

"This is consistent with our initial assessment, which has now been confirmed following a full structural report."

The airport says it's still in the process of recovering 100 cars of the top deck of the car park.

"This has been a painstaking task and has taken longer than expected," Mr Thompson continued.

"Not least because we have been hampered by periods of bad weather and strong winds."

The airport has advised that anyone affected by the fire would need to contact their insurance company directly.

Mr Thompson said the vast majority of the insurance claims have been settled.

"I understand that this has been a distressing situation and we have tried to keep customers updated as best we can throughout, whilst working with the Motor Insurers’ Bureau (MIB) and the Association of British Insurers to enable the claims process to be managed as quickly as possible."

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