Actually, they haven't identified the vehicle as far as the brand is concerned but haven't denied it was a Range Rover as pictured by a nearby witness and presumed CCTV image, either.
The Liverpool car park fire was deemed to have been caused by a running burning fuel line between initially a couple of rows of cars and then spreading upwards after two hours after which it was declared uncontrollable. In the interim, this burning fuel, according to the Fire Report into this fire, had spread to lower floors via the drainage system, which unfortunately was not able to withstand the high temperature of it.
Looking at the time line of the Luton Fire:
10 October 2023
20:47 first call to the emergency services to report the fire Level 3.
20:57 Fire brigade arrival within 'ten minutes'
21:00 just after - eye witness sees car 'flame throw' on open air top deck Level 4. He says cars alighting every few minutes thereafter with bangs and pops.
21:38: Fire Brigade call it a 'Major Incident', four fire fighters and one airport worker rushed to hospital with smoke inhalation problems. Fire fighting from outside the building with 100 firemen from surrounding districts and London Fire Brigade.
23:32 a time stamped video shows a vehicle plunging through the ceiling to the floor below.
11 Oct 2023
00:22 Fire brigade says it is no longer a major incident.
09:30 Fire now quenched to smouldering level.
Time to reach uncontrollable level: 51 minutes, half that of the Liverpool fire which the Fire Brigade said was one of the worst they had ever seen.
A Romanian eye witness said she saw the burning vehicle - the driver had already left - and she and her companion went to a lower floor to get a fire extinguisher because two nearby the vehicle were already empty.
She told a press reporter at the scene that they left when 'the fuel tank exploded'.
This must have been before 21:00-ish whilst still relatively escapable without injury. This is because an eye witness said he saw cars catching fire on the roof just after 21:00.
So, for a diesel fuel tank to 'explode' (or deflagrate, rather), the vapour int he tank has to reach circa 100
But where would that nearby heat have come from in the first place in Vehicle Zero? Assuming the fuel tank is not leaking - remember, it is the fuel tank exploding according to the Romanian lady - a piece of shrapnel piercing the tank, say from a lithium-ion battery, that is already aflame at a high temperature could have been the catalyst to cause this fire ball. If it was an electrical fire from the engine area (under the bonnet/hood) how did it reach the fuel tank at the back to cause it to appear to explode?
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Brian Trotta 'firefighter'
For the diesel tank to self-ignite it needs to have reached its ignition point temperature. (This is a different scenario from a leak fuel line.)
Of course, it is possible there was more than one fault with the vehicle but for the fuel tank to 'explode' or rather, burst into flame within less than ten minutes of the reported alarm call, something must have either penetrated the tank, which would have to be shrapnel of high velocity to pierce it and then trigger the vapours inside the tank; or its temperature must have been brought up to a very high temperature very rapidly for it to be able to combust and cause the tank to melt away completely in a fireball.
Within ten minutes of the first call, the fire had spread to a car on the roof, or to the roof setting off some cars or one car.
Whilst it may be useful to use the Liverpool Fire as a precedent for this one, I cannot see that it is similar other than that it was an intense fire, as you'd expect when a whole bunch of cars parked together all catch fire, if what the eye witness saw was an accurate depiction. And of course, we know lithium-ion fires are particularly toxic to inhale. A burning fuel line leak certainly would not look the same as a fuel tank exploding.
