Heathrow Airport has told passengers not to travel “under any circumstances” until it reopens
Heathrow Airport will be closed throughout Friday over a “significant” power outage linked to a fire at a nearby electrical substation that supplies it.
The airport, which is the UK’s busiest, has warned of “significant disruption” over the coming days and told passengers not to travel “under any circumstances” until it reopens.
Almost 5,000 homes remain without power after two explosions and a fire at the substation in Hayes, west London, and 150 people have been evacuated from surrounding properties.
Emergency services were first called to the scene at 23:23 GMT, and video shared on social media showed tall flames and smoke billowing from the substation overnight.
London Fire Brigade (LFB) has said the fire is now under control after a transformer was previously alight. The cause of the blaze is yet to be determined.
National Grid said on X it restored power to 62,000 customers at 06:00, and 4,900 homes remain without power.
Ten fire engines and about 70 firefighters have been sent to tackle the blaze, LFB said.
The Energy Secretary Ed Miliband told BBC Breakfast he had spoken to National Grid and it was a “fast-moving situation”.
Asked how such a busy transport hub is able to be so severely disrupted by a fire at an electrical substation, he replied: “It’s too early to answer that question. We don’t know the cause of this fire. It’s obviously an unprecedented event.”
He says the government will want to understand the causes and “what lessons, if any, it can teach us”.
Miliband added that the National Grid had “never seen an event quite like this so it is very unprecedented”, adding the priority at the moment was to get the fire out, restore power, and “unwinding” the travel disruption.
At least 1,351 flights to and from Heathrow will be affected on Friday, flight tracking website Flightradar24 said on X, with some 120 affected aircraft already in the air when the closure was announced.
