Dozens of flights are canceled after fire in parking lot at London’s Luton Airport

LONDON — Thousands of vacationers confronted disruption as all flights had been suspended on Wednesday at London’s Luton airport after a fire tore via a newly constructed parking storage, destroying cars and in part collapsing the construction.

Four firefighters and an airport worker had been handled in hospitals for smoke inhalation after the fire, which erupted on Tuesday night.

All flights had been suspended till at least 3 p.m. on Wednesday, the airport stated in a observation, and would-be passengers had been requested to stick away as a result of emergency crews had been nonetheless at the scene.

Luton, about 56 kilometers (35 miles) north of central London, is a hub for easyJet, Ryanair and different finances airways operating flights to locations in the United Kingdom and Europe.

Some passengers needed to wait at the within reach railway station since the airport was once closed.

Nikodem Lesiak, a school scholar making an attempt to go back to Poland, stated he had spent the evening 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 cancelled,” he said.

Video posted on social media and on the websites of British news outlets showed police and fire department vehicles gathered outside a multi-story parking structure where the top level was engulfed in flames. The parking garage for Terminal 2 partially collapsed.

In addition to the five people hospitalized, a sixth person was treated at the scene.

Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Service said its crews were “monitoring the smoldering remains” on Wednesday morning. Chief fire officer Andrew Hopkinson stated the blaze is assumed to have began with a diesel car, and the not too long ago opened parking storage didn’t have sprinklers.

Authorities said they don’t believe the blaze was started intentionally.

Russell Taylor, 41, an account director from Kinross in Scotland, saw the flames after flying in to Luton from Edinburgh. He told the PA news agency that he first saw a couple of fire engines with a car on fire on an upper level.

“A couple of mins later, maximum of the higher ground was once alight, automotive alarms had been going off with loud explosions from vehicles going up in flames,” he said. “The velocity in which the fire took grasp was once implausible.”