London’s Heathrow Airport closes for the day after power failure
March 21, 2025
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London’s Heathrow Airport closed on Friday and was expected to remain shuttered for the rest of the day, after a fire at a nearby electricity substation caused power outages at the major transportation center.
“Whilst fire crews are responding to the incident, we do not have clarity on when power may be reliably restored,” the airport said in a statement early Friday local time.
As a result, the airport said its facilities would remain closed until at least 11:59 p.m. local time (7:59 p.m. ET).
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The airport said that it expected “significant disruption over the coming days” and that it would notify the public as more became known as it urged passengers not to go to the site until it was reopened.
People in the arrivals area at Heathrow Airport in London, on Jan. 26, 2021.Matt Dunham / AP file
“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,” the airport said.
A video posted on social media showed the inside of the airport with only emergency lighting.
Six airports serve London, but Heathrow is the biggest. It predicts 84.2 million passengers will travel through the airport this year.
The London Fire Brigade said that a transformer in a substation in Hayes, which is north of Heathrow, was on fire and that 150 people have been evacuated. It said it was called to the scene just after 11:20 p.m. Thursday local time (7:20 p.m. ET).
“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,” Fire Assistant Commissioner Pat Goulbourne said in a statement.
The fire has caused power outages at “a large number of homes and local businesses,” Goulbourne said, and there was heavy smoke.
The cause of the fire was not known, the Fire Brigade said.
“This will be a prolonged incident,” Goulbourne said.
Flight tracking site FlightRadar24 said Friday morning local time that, “There are currently 120 aircraft in the air that will be diverting to alternate airports or returning to their origins.”
In 2021, Heathrow celebrated its 75th anniversary since it became a commercial airport. Before that, it was a Royal Air Force airfield during World War II.
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