If there is a fire in an airport car park, if hundreds of cars and the structure of the building are destroyed, we can blindly shoot that a diesel car is at fault again. This was the case during the giant fire in Stavanger (Norway) in January 2020, when 300 cars were damaged and part of the building collapsed, and it was also the case on the night of 10-11 October 2023, in Luton (near London, UK). The aftermath again proved to be lamentable.
Fire at Luton Airport. According to firefighters the cause is diesel, “they don’t believe an electric car was at fault”
Shortly after the fire started, some media outlets started reporting that the cause of fire at Luton Airport was (indeed!) an electric car. Such suggestions also appeared on X, although as early as Wednesday morning firefighters stressed that they “don’t believe it was an electric vehicle”. They assessed that the fire had started in a diesel car and reported that it was spreading rapidly. Of course, they also indicated that this was a preliminary assessment of the situation (source).
More than a hundred firefighters were battling the blaze, all flights were cancelled and up to 1 500 vehicles may have been burned or otherwise destroyed. The fire occurred on Tuesday evening on the third floor of the car park at Terminal 2. In Stavanger the cause was an Opel Zafira, in Luton the make of the vehicle has not yet been announced. The raging flames led to a structural breach and the collapse of part of the building:
An automotive specialist quoted by The Independent emphasises that the most common cause of car fires is a short circuit in the vehicle’s 12-volt electrical system. Nonetheless, as editors of EV-Catalog, we are calling for car park owners to consider banning diesel cars. So far, all statistics show that diesel cars are subject to fires [significantly] more often than electric cars. Diesel is theoretically less flammable than petrol, while this ‘compression ignition’ in diesels apparently causes problems.
Update 2023/10/11, 22.31: all indications are that the fire started from a Range Rover, although we should point out that we are unable to verify the veracity and reliability of this footage [location, time etc]. In any case, the manufacturer does not have a single electric in the range today:
You may also be interested in the ads below:The start of the fire at Luton airport. Started from a Range Rover yesterday evening. #lutonairport pic.twitter.com/DSPWZFYo2D
— lord cxsh (@LordCxsh) October 11, 2023