A fire tore through a car park near London Gatwick Airport in West Sussex on Saturday, destroying more than 100 cars. The blaze, described as 'significant and complex', broke out at Caldyne Business Park in Rowfant, near Crawley, at around 8.55pm. No one was injured in the fire, which continued into the early hours.
Impact on Local Businesses and Families
The car park is often used by holidaymakers, those staying at nearby holiday parks, and local businesses. Megan Maynard's brother's car was among those destroyed. She told a Crawley Facebook group: 'As many of you will know, yesterday's devastating fire in Rowfant caused millions of pounds' worth of damage and destroyed the livelihoods of so many people – one of them being my brother.'
'My brother and his best friend ran K&L Automotive, a breakdown and recovery business based at the site and in just one night everything they had worked so hard to build was taken from them.'
Community Response and Power Outages
Ashley Riley, who started a GoFundMe to raise money for the family, added: 'They have lost their livelihoods and the amount of money to replace everything is [immeasurable]. They all have families to support and will now struggle to get life back on track and to rebuild their business from scratch.'
More than 2,000 homes nearby suffered blackouts when electricity had to be shut off after flames damaged high voltage equipment. Power has since been restored, and UK Power Networks, which provides electricity to the area, is reporting no known outages.
Arrest and Investigation
The cause of the fire is unclear, but fire services say it involved a workshop, electric and heavy goods vehicles, and cylinders. A 67-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of arson and has been bailed.
