24 October 2023 , 12:46
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A gran who was judged by her insurer to be 'at fault' because her car was wrecked in the Luton Airport car park fire has finally been cleared of blame.
Cath Glaze and her partner were among the owners of 1,500 or so motors which were in the car park on 10 October, prompting a 12 hour response from more than 100 fire fighters to put the blaze out.
She cannot pick up her grandkids after her car was caught up in the fire. To add insult to significant inconvenience, Cath said her insurance firm originally judged her to be 'at fault' for the probable destruction of her car, meaning she would have lost her no claims bonus. The pay-out originally offered to her is £13,000 was less than she paid for her car.
She previously told the Mirror: "We're upset about the insurance. They won't give us a courtesy car so we can't get around. They're putting it down as our fault as they're saying they can't claim on a third party. It doesn't seem fair, not at all."
The blaze ripped through the car park (PA)Several days later, having pushed back against the insurance firm's offer, Cath has had a breakthrough. The Hyundai owner received an email explaining that her insurance company would "be settling all claims in relation to the fire that was in Luton Airport car parks as 'non fault'."
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"We wish to take this opportunity to thank you for your patience and to advise you that we are doing everything we can to settle your claim as soon as possible," an email from the firm added.
The update is good news for those, like Cath, who are grappling with insurance firms over pay-outs and liability following the blaze. Many remain on tenterhooks, unsure if their vehicles have been destroyed or, if they haven't, can be safely removed from the car park.
The issue is more than a financial one for some. Sarah Scott told the Mirror that she believes her vehicle is wrecked after it was covered by rubble from the collapsing car park. The motor was "priceless" to her, it having been passed down from her late father.
Work is still ongoing to see if some of the cars can be saved (PA)Efforts are still under way to remove about 100 of the cars from the top deck of the structure in order to stabilise the structure, which experts fear may be too fragile to stop collapsing onto the vehicles below.
Owners of the cars inside have been left in limbo as they wait to see if their motors can be saved. Many have travelled to the airport and found their vehicles are intact, despite being banned from retrieving them due to the perilous state of the structure.
On Saturday Neil Thompson, operations director at London Luton Airport, said: "Having worked with our engineers, experts and insurers, we are getting closer every day to making a final decision on what is going to happen to the car park and the vehicles contained within it.
"Working with our structural engineers, we now plan to remove around a hundred cars from the top deck of the car park for the purposes of stabilising the structure. Once removed, these cars will be stored in a safe compound and we will contact customers and work with insurers to inform them of the process of recovery for those cars. Only then will it be possible to assess the condition of those cars.
"For all other vehicles in the car park, the assessment remains largely unchanged which is that no cars can currently be accessed or removed from the car park. The structure remains fundamentally unsafe and the adverse weather over the last few days hasn’t helped.
"We would like to thank customers for their ongoing patience and understanding as we work our way through this complicated and challenging situation."
Some 235 flights were cancelled, affecting around 40,000 passengers. Airport bosses said they had passed on the details of 1,405 cars to the Motor Insurer's Bureau.
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