Fire breaks out at Championship stadium as club provide update ahead of huge Saturday lunchtime clash

A Championship club’s stadium was on fire on Friday evening, less than 24 hours before they were scheduled to play at 12:30pm today.

Firefighters were rushed to the scene as black smoke and flames emerged from the outside of the stadium, which is placed in the heart of a local neighbourhood.

A full road closure was implemented as it took around two hours for the flames to be extinguished and for the incident to be cleared. 

Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Service were notified of the emergency at 8:08pm on Friday, prompting them to send crews from Luton, Stopsley, Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard stations all responding.

The scenes occurred at Kenilworth Road, home to Luton Town, where the Hatters will host Coventry City at lunchtime on Saturday.

Luton explained that the incident was caused by a small appliance that had caught fire in the stadium’s laundry room.

Luton come into today’s clash knee-deep in a fight for Championship survival, just a year after their relegation from the Premier League.

Matt Bloomfield’s side sit 22nd in the table only behind Derby in the last safe spot on goal difference. Meanwhile, their relegation rivals are close behind, with Cardiff City and Plymouth Argyle trailing by just three points a piece.

With two game left to go this season, Luton are looking to avoid becoming the first team since Sunderland in 2017-18 to be relegated from the English top-flight then finish last in the Championship the following season.

Despite the fire scare, Luton released a statement at 10:39pm, confirming their would be no ‘disruption’ to their clash with Coventry.

It read: ‘We would like to advise supporters that following reports of an incident at Kenilworth Road this evening, there is no disruption to tomorrow’s fixture with Coventry City taking place.

‘Smoke was found to be coming from a small appliance that had caught fire in the stadium’s laundry room, which was contained within that area and has been dealt with swiftly to prevent any substantial damage.

‘We would like to offer a huge thank you to Beds Fire & Rescue for their quick intervention, along with club partners and staff who are also on site to help resolve the issue and ensure that everything is now safe.’

On the opposite end of the table, Coventry will look to bounce back from a 3-1 defeat by Argyle last week to continue their bid to make the playoffs.