Luton car park fire

[230TE]

Major incident ongoing at Luton Airport. A lot of holidaymakers will be going home by taxi.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-h...

[ChocolateFrog]

You'd be gutted.

We don't get back until 0130 from our holiday. Imagine rocking up with a couple of kids and all your stuff at that time and having to deal with that.

[Timothy Bucktu]

Another EV BBQ?

[spaximus]

Timothy Bucktu said:

Another EV BBQ?

Time will tell but wouldn't be surprised unless it is arson

[stevemcs]

Timothy Bucktu said:

Another EV BBQ?

Never ...........must be ICE .........

Thats going to put that car park out of action for many months though, unless it has to come down completely

[Tyre Tread]

stevemcs said:

Never ...........must be ICE .........

Thats going to put that car park out of action for many months though, unless it has to come down completely

4th Floor completely collapsed according to a local firefighter via a friend of mine.

[RacerMike]

Would be surprised if it was an EV fire as they tend to happen when charging and Luton seem to suggest chargers aren’t in car park 2.

More surprising is they haven’t installed any, or sufficient fire suppression in a modern car park! I mean…even without EVs there’s literally thousands of litres of highly flammable liquids surrounded by highly flammable material and plastic.

[J4CKO]

I thought EV but to be honest, it’s probably unlikely, though possible, not heard of many EV fires of late.

Anyone else heard of any, I think the anti EV movement latch onto any fire involving an EV and ignore all the ICE cars that catch fire, never personally seen an EV alight.

[RacerMike]

J4CKO said:

I thought EV but to be honest, it’s probably unlikely, though possible, not heard of many EV fires of late.

Anyone else heard of any, I think the anti EV movement latch onto any fire involving an EV and ignore all the ICE cars that catch fire, never personally seen an EV alight.

They’re not unheard of, but more often than not these days they’re due to external factors. There’s a lot of monitoring, active cooling and control in a modern EV so it’s unusual now for them to spontaneously catch. As you allude too, there are likely far far more ICE fires.

Could either be arson, or could be something as simple as a cigarette. Lots of leaves around at the moment and they’ll be dry due to the weather. Almost certainly plenty of dry leaves in bumpers, vents and leaf screens.

[Slyjoe]

J4CKO said:

I thought EV but to be honest,

I thought the first wave of terrorism in the UK after the horrible weekend in Israel, but hey, that's just me. HopeI'm wrong.

[glazbagun]

Slyjoe said:

J4CKO said:

I thought EV but to be honest,

I thought the first wave of terrorism in the UK after the horrible weekend in Israel, but hey, that's just me. HopeI'm wrong.

Was my first thought too, after the Estonia / Finland sabotage. Time to step away from social media for a few days I think.

[stevemcs]

Reports saying floor 4 is now at the bottom.

Without assuming it’s an Ev fire, to cut down on the chances of fire spreading - given the heat and also the temperatures they burn at, would being a minimum space of 1.5 meters between the cars reduce the chances of fire spreading

[coetzeeh]

Just reading this from my hotel room in Amsterdam.

My trusted old L320 TDV8 is or was in the car park.

Feeling bloody helpless, I was going to say gutted..

[Sheepshanks]

RacerMike said:

They’re not unheard of, but more often than not these days they’re due to external factors. There’s a lot of monitoring, active cooling and control in a modern EV so it’s unusual now for them to spontaneously catch. As you allude too, there are likely far far more ICE fires.

Could either be arson, or could be something as simple as a cigarette. Lots of leaves around at the moment and they’ll be dry due to the weather. Almost certainly plenty of dry leaves in bumpers, vents and leaf screens.

Reports say there were a couple of fire appliances dealing with a single vehicle fire then the fire spread very quickly - so does make you wonder what the reason was they couldn’t contain it.

[Muddle238]

From the BBC;

"Passengers had cars in the car park and many are claiming the airlines have simply dumped them."

Err, it's nothing to do with the airlines. Why should EasyJet pay for everyone's taxi to get home after their week lounging on a plastic deckchair in some beach resort, just because a random car caught fire in a car park in Bedfordshire? A bit extreme but gets the point across. Passengers seem to think their own responsibilities get handed to their chosen airline operator the moment they're within a mile of an airport.

[irc]

Muddle238 said:

From the BBC;

"Passengers had cars in the car park and many are claiming the airlines have simply dumped them."

Err, it's nothing to do with the airlines. Why should EasyJet pay for everyone's taxi to get home after their week lounging on a plastic deckchair in some beach resort, just because a random car caught fire in a car park in Bedfordshire? A bit extreme but gets the point across. Passengers seem to think their own responsibilities get handed to their chosen airline operator the moment they're within a mile of an airport.

True. The airlines got them to the airport. Job done.

Taxi home. Insurance claim. st happens but it isn't always the airline's fault
.

[Sheepshanks]

Muddle238 said:

From the BBC;

"Passengers had cars in the car park and many are claiming the airlines have simply dumped them."

Err, it's nothing to do with the airlines. Why should EasyJet pay for everyone's taxi to get home after their week lounging on a plastic deckchair in some beach resort, just because a random car caught fire in a car park in Bedfordshire? A bit extreme but gets the point across. Passengers seem to think their own responsibilities get handed to their chosen airline operator the moment they're within a mile of an airport.

I read it as people trying to get to other airports to catch alternative flights. If people are on packages, or needing to get flights home, then that’s down to the tour operator or airline.

[tim0409]

Sheepshanks said:

Muddle238 said:

From the BBC;

"Passengers had cars in the car park and many are claiming the airlines have simply dumped them."

Err, it's nothing to do with the airlines. Why should EasyJet pay for everyone's taxi to get home after their week lounging on a plastic deckchair in some beach resort, just because a random car caught fire in a car park in Bedfordshire? A bit extreme but gets the point across. Passengers seem to think their own responsibilities get handed to their chosen airline operator the moment they're within a mile of an airport.

I read it as people trying to get to other airports to catch alternative flights. If people are on packages, or needing to get flights home, then that’s down to the tour operator or airline.

Indeed, flights are suspended so their will be a lot of people struggling to get home.

[Ivan stewart]

Thinking a little bit more tech is going to be needed ,
Fire suppression and special EV bays , and the battery manufacturers maybe some sort of explosive device that severs the internal battery components if it has a fire??

[PurpleTurtle]

The last few times I’ve flown in/out of Luton it always gives the feeling of an airport that is trying to cram too many pax into the available space, a result of trying to max out its capacity. I suspect they are running close to peak occupancy at all times, hence something like this happens and there is immediately no room at the inn for delayed travellers.

I feel for the people who’ve parked there in good faith. The worst you normally expect to come back to is a parking ding.