London’s Heathrow Airport closes for the day after power failure
London’s Heathrow Airport closed Friday local time and will remain closed all 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.
“To maintain the safety of our passengers and colleagues, we have no choice but to close Heathrow until 23h59 on 21 March 2025,” the airport said.
The airport said that it expects “significant disruption over the coming days” and that it would notify the public as more becomes known.
Passengers should not go to the airport until it is reopened, it said.
“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.
Passengers should not go to the airport until it is reopened, it said.
“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.
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.
“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.
The Fire Brigade was called at 11:23 p.m. Thursday local time (7:23 p.m. ET), the firefighting agency said.
