Fire Strikes Cars That Were Trapped In A 'Robot Car Park' For 15 Years

Some of the vehicles that have lived in Edinburgh's automated 'SkyPark' since its closure in 2003 have caught on fire during the demolition process

One of the weirdest car stories last month concerned an automated car park in Edinburgh. The company operating the facility went bust in 2003, forcing the ‘Autosafe SkyPark’ to close its doors for good a mere two years after opening. Oh, and it was shut with cars still inside.

Eight vehicles were uncovered a few weeks ago by the demolition firm which is currently tearing the place down, making us all wonder firstly how they got stuck there, and secondly what would happen to them. Well, the latter question has now been partly answered: at least two of them have been torched…

During the demolition work several of the cars were set on fire, as spotted by this Twitter user. The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service were called in, but thankfully in the end it was only the cars that were harmed.

“There were no casualties. Crews left the scene at 12:23 after ensuring the area was made safe,” a spokeperson from the fire service told BBC News.

Rumours of cars being ‘trapped’ in SkyPark had been doing the rounds for many years, with various theories put forward as to how they got there. One urban legend claimed the car park was simply locked up before owners were able to remove their cars, but the most likely answer is more mundane - someone who claimed to have worked at SkyPark said on Facebook that numerous “bangers” were purchased to test the complex mechanical system. Given the kinds of cars that were spotted in the place last month - including a Fiat Uno and an Austin/MG Maestro - it’s certainly a believable explanation.

Image via Reddit user ieya404
Image via Reddit user ieya404

The former employee also explained that the automated aspect of the car park was particularly unreliable. “Many a time we had to got inside and manually retrieve the cars using a joystick,” he explained.

Last month, Hermes Investment Management, the company redeveloping the car park’s site, said: “The owners of the cars are unknown and they are now the property of the demolition company who will remove the cars once work begins on the levels on which they are located.”

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Comments

BenPaye(JDMSquad)(MX5Squad)(LFAsquad)(Subie Squad) (Rotary F

“Robots strike CarThrottle”

H e l p

02/08/2018 - 10:49 |
11 | 3

Terminator: car throttle edition

02/08/2018 - 11:50 |
3 | 0
Nishant Dash

Hehe, it’d have been a shame if they were Ford Pintos as well

P.S. any update on the bot issue?

02/08/2018 - 11:16 |
8 | 5
7heDuke

“Great condition cars found in abondend building”

Litteraly couple of weeks later

“Found cars burn to a crisp”

02/08/2018 - 11:20 |
86 | 1
Nishant Dash

In reply to by 7heDuke

😂😂😂😂

02/08/2018 - 11:31 |
5 | 3
Matt Robinson
Matt Robinson

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

There’s a huge effort underway behind the scenes to fix the current issues. Appreciate the current situation is frustrating, but posting this in every single article isn’t necessary

02/08/2018 - 11:51 |
18 | 3
Dorkek

Why did the mods delete my post?

02/08/2018 - 11:51 |
7 | 2
Anonymous

In reply to by Dorkek

Which one?

02/08/2018 - 11:59 |
1 | 1
Ewan23 (The Scottish guy)

In reply to by Dorkek

Oh i don’t know maybe because they have frozen all posts in order to stop the bots so you posting is just slowing down the process.

02/08/2018 - 12:22 |
2 | 2
Anonymous

[DELETED]

02/08/2018 - 12:09 |
0 | 0
DriftMaster 1

No surprise since they’re more likely to have died in 2003

02/08/2018 - 16:24 |
2 | 0
max fortune
02/10/2018 - 13:51 |
0 | 0
Anonymous

Its so terrible

02/11/2018 - 15:13 |
0 | 0
Sam 🅱️yrne

Wait, so the cars were just abandoned? Owners trying to get their cars back?

02/18/2018 - 17:13 |
0 | 0