Fresh details of Stansted Airport car park fire released
05.09.10
Fresh details of the Stansted Airport car park fire that turned rows of neatly-parked motors to blackened scrap have been published by the Essex Gazette. The fire means that two dozen travellers landing back at Stansted expecting an easy drive home will have a nasty surprise after 20 cars were totally destroyed and 4 more badly damaged in the early morning inferno on Bank Holiday Monday. A fire and police service investigation was initially set up to see if the blaze was suspicious, but ruled it started accidentally due to an electrical fault in one of the cars.
One fire appliance from the airport was initially sent to tackle the fire in zone C of the long-stay car park at 02:30 last Monday, but quickly called for back-up when faced with the scale of the flames. Station officer at Dunmow Keith Crow told the newspaper: ‘When we arrived most of the [twenty four] cars were on fire. There are no fire hydrants in the airport car park so water supply was a problem. Until we got an adequate supply we had to focus on stopping it spreading.’
An airport machine carrying 11,000 gallons of water was called in to bolster supplies from the standard fire engines sent from Great Dunmow and Thaxted , which carry 400 gallons. Mr Crown said: ‘We do get car fires at Stansted but not normally at that time or involving so many cars. When you have got that many cars parked close together it can be a problem. There will be some unhappy travellers returning home.’
Car park operator Empark tried to contact owners of those torched cars they could identify, but many customers do not specify their car or registration when they book online. An employee has been stationed permanently at the car park to deliver the unhappy news to the others when they reach the car park, but there are no signs in the airport or messages on the transfer buses - we guess as this would put off other passengers from booking again !
To help those vehicle owners affected by the fire, the airport has arranged for complimentary taxis to be available to enable them to complete their onward journeys, and has negotiated a 40 percent discount with one of the car rental companies for anyone wishing to drive home themselves.
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