A massive fire engulfed a new parking garage at a major UK airport, injuring five people and leaving some 25,000 travelers stranded with major delays Wednesday.
Video showed the raging inferno consuming the top floor of the multi-story parking garage late Tuesday at terminal 2 in Luton Airport, an international hub for budget airlines just outside London.
“The speed in which the fire took hold was incredible,” said Russell Taylor, 41, who saw the blaze after flying in from his native Scotland.
He first saw fire engines tackling an engulfed car, he said.
“A few minutes later most of the upper floor was alight, car alarms were going off with loud explosions from cars going up in flames,” he said.
The blaze is thought to have started around 9 p.m. with a diesel vehicle and rapidly spread to other cars inside the packed garage, which was not equipped with a sprinklers system, said chief fire officer Andrew Hopkinson.
Four firefighters and an airport employee were taken to area hospitals suffering from smoke inhalation after the fire. A sixth person was treated at the scene.
Authorities said they do not believe the fire was started intentionally inside the garage, which was said to house up to 1,500 vehicles.
At least 140 flights that were scheduled to take off or land at the airport were canceled Wednesday, and an additional 17 flights had to be diverted to other airports, reported the Evening Standard.
Passengers were asked to stay away from Luton Airport as firefighters continued working at the scene. Some would-be travelers had to wait for hours at the nearby railway station.
Nikodem Lesiak, a university student trying to return to Poland, said he had spent the night at the station.
“When we got here, we found out Luton is burning and everything is closed, and we were supposed to have our flight at 7:50 today but it was canceled,” he said.
With Post wires
“When we got here, we found out Luton is burning and everything is closed, and we were supposed to have our flight at 7:50 today but it was canceled,” he said.
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