Counter-terrorism police lead fire inquiry as Heathrow closed all day
Thousands of homes have been left without power and more than 100 people were evacuated.
Counter-terrorism police officers are leading the investigation into the cause of a fire which has led to the closure of Heathrow airport.
A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police said there is “currently no indication of foul play” but “we retain an open mind at this time”.
The force said its Counter Terrorism Command would lead inquiries given the impact of the fire “on critical national infrastructure”.
More than 200,000 air passengers have had their flights to or from Heathrow cancelled or diverted on Friday because the airport is closed all day after a fire at a nearby electrical substation.
Thousands of homes have been left without power and more than 100 people were evacuated after a transformer within the North Hyde electrical substation caught fire in west London.
The airport, which is supplied by the substation, said it was among those affected by the power outage.
Passengers are being warned to expect disruption for several days, and many planes and flight crews are in the wrong location.
Online flight tracking service Flightradar24 said the closure would affect more than 1,350 flights to and from Heathrow on Friday. This includes 679 scheduled to land and 678 due to take off from the airport.
It said 120 flights to the airport were in the air when the closure was announced.
Heathrow is the UK’s largest airport, with more than 83.9 million passengers travelling through its terminals in 2024.
A Heathrow spokesperson said: “Heathrow is experiencing a significant power outage across the airport due to a large fire at a nearby electrical substation. Whilst fire crews are responding to the incident, we do not have clarity on when power may be reliably restored.
“To maintain the safety of our passengers and colleagues, we have no choice but to close Heathrow until 23h59 on 21 March 2025. We expect significant disruption over the coming days and passengers should not travel to the airport under any circumstances until the airport reopens.
“We will provide an update when more information on the resumption of operations is available. We know this will be disappointing for passengers and we want to reassure that we are working as hard as possible to resolve the situation.”
This is believed to be the worse disruption at Heathrow since December 18-23 2010, when thousands of Christmas getaway passengers camped in the terminals because of widespread cancellations caused by snow.
An inquiry found the clearing of aircraft stands was slower than required.
In April of that year, air travel was grounded across Europe because of an ash cloud caused by an Icelandic volcanic eruption.
A system failure suffered by air traffic control provider Nats in August 2023 led to flights being cancelled across the UK for several hours.
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said the fire “appears to have knocked out a back-up generator as well as the substation itself”.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “It’s too early to say what caused this but I think obviously we will have to look hard at the causes and also the protection and the resilience that is in place for major institutions like Heathrow.”
He added that 100,000 homes were without power overnight, and this was later reduced to 4,000.
Flights were diverted to Gatwick, Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris and Ireland’s Shannon Airport.
A number of flights were also turned around and returned to airports in Canada and the United States.
Gatwick Airport accepted seven diverted flights from locations including Singapore, Johannesburg, Lagos, Cape Town and Doha which were originally destined for Heathrow.
Shannon Airport in Co Clare accepted six diversions from Toronto, Atlanta, Bridgetown Barbados, Boston, Orlando and Newark.
Aviation consultant John Strickland said the closure of Heathrow for an entire day is “a massive dislocation to have to recover from”.
He added: “Once an aircraft is in the wrong place with the crew, if you’re away from home you don’t have another crew to suddenly bring the plane and the passengers back.
“You’ve got to wait until that crew has taken its rest, which is always required after a duty period.
“We’re talking about several days worth of disruption to get the planes recovered and start using them again to move planned and disrupted passengers.”
He likened the disruption to what happened after the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001, when flights were grounded across the US.
He said: “It’s a contained version of 9/11.”
Rory Boland, editor of magazine Which? Travel, said affected passengers are not entitled to compensation but airlines should provide assistance such as overnight accommodation if required and re-routing bookings, including with rival carriers from alternative airports.
Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks said on X there was a large-scale power outage in Hayes, Hounslow and the surrounding areas impacting more than 16,300 homes.
According to the power company’s website, authorities aimed to restore power by 3pm on Friday.
A National Grid spokesperson said the fire had damaged equipment and they were “working at speed to restore power supplies as quickly as possible”.
London Fire Brigade said it received the first reports of the fire at 11.23pm on Thursday, and reported it being “under control” at around 8am.
Around 150 people were evacuated from surrounding properties and a 200-metre cordon was put in place as a precaution.
Speaking to broadcasters at the scene in Hayes, deputy commissioner Jonathan Smith said: “The fire involved a transformer comprising of 25,000 litres of cooling oil fully alight.
“This created a major hazard due to the still live high-voltage equipment and the nature of the oil-fuelled fire.”
Around 10% of the substation remains alight.
Some 67,000 households were left without power, which has since fallen to 5,000.
There is also no power at Heathrow’s Terminals 2 or 4, Mr Smith said.
A local resident, who did not want to be named, said she heard a “massive explosion”.
All the power went off, she said, adding: “It just smelled like burning.”
London Ambulance Service said there were no casualties at the scene of the fire.
Footage posted to social media showed huge flames and large plumes of smoke coming from the facility.
The brigade said nearly 200 calls had been received in relation to the incident with crews from Hayes, Heathrow, Hillingdon, Southall and surrounding areas on the scene.
Emergency services were called to the scene at 11.23pm on Thursday. The cause of the fire is yet to be determined.
