Remember the Luton Airport Fire? Last October, a small airport about 20 miles outside of London commonly used by low-cost carriers flying within Europe shut down after a new carpark built for those taking off from Terminal 2 erupted into flames. A fire started in one of the parked vehicles and quickly started spreading through the parking lot.
The fire ended up damaging over 1,500 vehicles and causing the collapse of the second floor of the parking lot. A 30-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of causing criminal damage and released on bail as an investigation continued (at last update, there was no suspicion that he caused it intentionally.)
Related: There's an update on total flight suspensions after scary international airport fire
Fire crews at Bristol Airport (BRS) on Dec. 10 rushed to put out a similar car park fire in the regional airport a three-hour drive from London. A fire broke out in one of the cars parked in the Silver Zone car park on the south side of the airport used for long-term stays of more than three days at 10 a.m. local time.
A fire at Bristol Airport's car park has destroyed vehicles and caused delays to flights.
— Sky News (@SkyNews) December 10, 2023
Read more: https://t.co/Vq0JbFHmKb pic.twitter.com/WRjPQtDbjj
'The fire spread to a small number of vehicles,' airport spokesperson says
Fire crews were able to put it out before the blazes spread further but it still ended up damaging 11 cars and closed the airport runway for several hours before flights could resume in the afternoon.
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"A parked car caught fire in our Silver Zone car park, which is an open-air car park to the south of our runway," a Bristol Airport spokesperson told aviation website Simple Flying. "The fire spread to a small number of vehicles. There were no injuries, and the fire was quickly put out by the emergency services."
The spokesperson also said that airport authorities would be "contact[ing] the owners of any damaged cars as soon as possible."
While this car park fire was nowhere near as widespread as the Luton fire two months earlier, the damage to the affected cars was extensive and in some cases total. Several of the 11 cars were completely burned to the ground.
This is why fires can easily spread through airport parking lots
The firefighters working on the site also told local outlets that the fire appears to have been started by an "accidental ignition" and is not being treated as suspicious.
While the internet buzzed with theories about it being strange that two fires so similar in style would occur in such a short timeframe in the same country, carparks in general are at a particular risk of fires due to flames being able to spread fast between cars parked in close proximity.
The rise of electric cars have also increased the problem in some places. While the chance of a fire is no greater than in a regular gas car, the high-voltage, lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles can short and turn into a raging fire that is more difficult to put out.
In the case of Bristol Airport, an investigation into how the fire started is still ongoing. At Luton, it was a diesel-powered Range Rover rather than electric vehicle that sparked the 1,500-car fire.
