Heathrow Airport will be closed throughout Friday after a fire at an electrical substation halted all flights with local residents evacuated from their homes and schools shut.
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.
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.
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. No-one was injured the fire.
The Energy Secretary Ed Miliband told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme it was an unprecedented event which “appears to have knocked out a back-up generator as well as a substation itself”.
Asked on BBC Breakfast how such a busy transport hub was 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.”
He said the government would want to understand the causes and “what lessons, if any, it can teach us”.
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.
A 200m cordon has been put in place as a precaution, and local residents have been advised to keep doors and windows closed because of a “significant amount of smoke”.
The brigade added it led 29 people to safety from nearby properties.
Assistant Commissioner Pat Goulbourne said firefighters “have made good progress in containing the fire and preventing further spread”.
“As we head into the morning, disruption is expected to increase, and we urge people to avoid the area wherever possible.”
LFB said it had received nearly 200 calls about the fire.
“This is a highly visible and significant incident, and our firefighters are working tirelessly in challenging conditions to bring the fire under control as swiftly as possible,” Mr Goulbourne added.
A group of residents who were evacuated from the road gathered at a nearby Premier Inn but said there was little communication overnight, leaving them confused about where to go.
Vaneca Sinclair, 64, said: “I was about 100 yards from the explosion. At about 11.30 I was getting up getting ready to go to bed.
“Suddenly there was this huge bang and the house just shook.
“I thought maybe someone had crashed into the wall or something and then opened the front door and I had a look and there were just these flames everywhere down at the bottom of the road.
“I quickly grabbed my coat and trainers and ran down the road to see what it was… and realised it was the substation on fire.”
She added the scene was “unbelievable – the flames and the smoke and everything… it was just scary”.
Ms Sinclair said police later told them to return home and grab essentials before evacuating, but no-one told them where to gather and eventually they walked to the hotel, which let them in and allowed them to have hot drinks and use toilets while they waited.
“I’m absolutely shattered now,” she said, adding she had not slept since the night before.
Her neighbour Savita Kapur, 51, said: “When the first explosion went off at 11:30, I literally just ran out of the house.”
She said police officers told them to go back inside before eventually telling her she needed to leave.
“I have an elderly mother who is in her eighties and not very well at all – I had to escort her into my car and get her out of the area and drop her off to my sisters.
“When I was driving up my road the second explosion went off and the whole ground shook.”
She said she managed to drop off her mother and make it to the Premier Inn with other residents, but there has been “no communication”.
But she thanked emergency services and said she appreciated the road was not yet safe to return to.
“We were actually standing on our road behind the police line until about 2:30 in the morning,” she explained.
Hillingdon Council said in an update on its website: “Most evacuees have dispersed and have made arrangements themselves, and the council is assisting 12 people with hotel accommodation until it is safe to return to their homes.”
Three schools – Pinkwell Primary, Botwell House and Dr Tripletts – are closed along with Nestles Avenue Early Years Centre.
The council said it would provide updates on whether any more local schools need to close.
A Heathrow Airport spokesperson said: “To maintain the safety of our passengers and colleagues, we have no choice but to close Heathrow until 23:59 on 21 March 2025.”
“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,” they added.
“Whilst fire crews are responding to the incident, we do not have clarity on when power may be reliably restored.”
The airport has apologised for the disruption and has advised passengers to contact their airlines for further information.
Heathrow is the UK’s largest aviation hub, handling about 1,300 landings and take-offs each day. A record 83.9 million passengers passed through its terminals last year, according to its latest data.
Several airlines with flights due to land at or take off from Heathrow have been cancelled or diverted to other airports.
Passengers have been advised to contact their airlines for the latest updates.
Source: BBC.COM
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