Heathrow airport closed: counter-terrorism police deployed in ‘routine’ investigation into substation fire – live
Counter-terrorism involvement ‘routine’ and ‘nothing more than precaution’
Vikram Dodd
Investigators continue to believe the fire was not the result of a deliberate act, but stress inquiries are at an early stage.
Detectives from Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorism command are being deployed as part of the investigation, but that is described as routine and nothing more than a precaution.
Counter-terrorism detectives bring some specialist skills but also they have the security clearance to access sensitive material as investigators try to establish the fire’s cause.
Authorities, including from the intelligence service, are monitoring and would be updated if the police led investigation suggests anything suspicious led to the fire.
Heathrow is part of the UK’s critical national infrastructure and thus a potential target for terrorism or sabotage in pursuance of a cause. Espionage and sabotage in the UK backed by state actors has risen in recent years.
Key events
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‘Clear planning failure’ if Heathrow depends on single power source
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Counter-terrorism involvement ‘routine’ and ‘nothing more than precaution’
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Prime minister Starmer ‘receiving regular updates’ on Heathrow outage
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What are your rights after flight cancellations?
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No air quality issues after Hayes substation fire, fire brigade says
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‘25,000 litres of cooling oil alight’ in Hayes substation fire, London fire brigade says
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‘Highly rare and unusual’ substation fire, scientists say
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‘Significant disruption over coming days,’ London mayor says
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Closed Heathrow airport – in pictures
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Tell us: have you been affected by London’s Heathrow airport closure?
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Emergency services at North Hyde substation in Hayes – in pictures
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‘Significant impact’ of Heathrow closure, British Airways say
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‘No suggestion there is foul play,’ energy secretary says
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Hayes fire under control, investigation into causes under way, London Fire Brigade confirms
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‘Catastrophic’ fire affected Heathrow, says UK energy secretary
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Transport minister urges passengers not to travel to Heathrow
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London Stansted airport remains open
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What we know so far
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Heathrow closure ‘catastrophic for air traffic’ says aviation expert
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Gatwick airport accepting diverted flights
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Travel experts say the disruption will extend far beyond Heathrow
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More than 1,000 flights will be affected
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At least 120 flights diverted
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Opening summary
‘Clear planning failure’ if Heathrow depends on single power source
International Air Transport Association, the trade association for airlines, said it would be a “clear planning failure” if Heathrow turned out to be “dependent on a single power source without an alternative.”
“From that arises the question of who bears the costs of taking care of disrupted travellers. We must find a fairer allocation of passenger care costs than airlines alone picking up the tab when infrastructure fails. Until that happens, Heathrow has very little incentive to improve,” IATA’s director general Willie Walsh said in a statement.
Walsh added that “today’s closing of Heathrow will inconvenience a huge number of travellers,” as he called it a “yet another case of Heathrow letting down both travelers and airlines.”
Counter-terrorism involvement ‘routine’ and ‘nothing more than precaution’
Vikram Dodd
Investigators continue to believe the fire was not the result of a deliberate act, but stress inquiries are at an early stage.
Detectives from Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorism command are being deployed as part of the investigation, but that is described as routine and nothing more than a precaution.
Counter-terrorism detectives bring some specialist skills but also they have the security clearance to access sensitive material as investigators try to establish the fire’s cause.
Authorities, including from the intelligence service, are monitoring and would be updated if the police led investigation suggests anything suspicious led to the fire.
Heathrow is part of the UK’s critical national infrastructure and thus a potential target for terrorism or sabotage in pursuance of a cause. Espionage and sabotage in the UK backed by state actors has risen in recent years.
Prime minister Starmer ‘receiving regular updates’ on Heathrow outage
UK prime minister Keir Starmer has posted an update on Heathrow outage, saying he is “receiving regular updates” on the incident.
Here is what he said:
“I know the situation in Heathrow is causing distress and disruption, especially for those travelling or without power in their homes. I’m receiving regular updates and I’m in close contact with partners on the ground. Thanks to our emergency workers for keeping people safe.”
What are your rights after flight cancellations?
Zoe Wood
Travellers have woken up to the news that Heathrow airport is closed due to a nearby fire. Friday is usually the busiest day of the week for travel as people return from business trips or head off on holiday, with more than 1,350 flights due to take off and land.
If you are among the up to 291,000 passengers whose flights have been disrupted by the power outage, you have significant rights in relation to replacement flights, refunds and general customer care.
During the briefing, Smith reveals that firefighters evacuated 29 people from neighbouring properties and established a 200-meter cordon as a precaution, with further 150 people evacuated to a rest centre.
No injuries were reported, he confirmed.
That concludes the LFB’s briefing.
No air quality issues after Hayes substation fire, fire brigade says
London fire brigade’s assistant commissioner Smith is also asked about air quality consequences of the fire.
He insists that there were “no issues with the air quality as we stand,” and reassured reporters the LBF has “very good scientific advisers who advise us to make sure that we are doing what we need to ensure the quality of the air.”
He declined to respond to questions about any potential previous fires at the substation, whether the airport had sufficient backup power, and potential costs associated with the disruption.
During the Q&A, London fire brigade’s Smith gets also asked about an unconfirmed report by The Times that counter-terrorism police is part of the investigation, although the newspaper noted that this was understood to be “a precautionary measure rather than an indication of foul play.”
He says:
As you’ll appreciate, I won’t be able to comment on the investigations of the Metropolitan police.
All I can say is the Metropolitan police are investigating the cause of this fire, ably assisted by our fire investigation officers, and we will, of course, assist with that process.
‘25,000 litres of cooling oil alight’ in Hayes substation fire, London fire brigade says
London fire brigade is giving a press briefing just now, updating on its response to the incident.
Deputy commissioner Jonathan Smith says the service received over 200 calls to a fire, which involved a transformed “comprising of 25,000 litres of cooling oil, fully alight.”
He says this created “a major hazard due to the still live high voltage equipment and the nature of the oil fueled fire.”
“At the most recent update that I have received, approximately 10% remains alight,” he says.
He adds 67,000 households were left without power as a result of the fire, and 5,000 remain without power at the moment.
He confirms that there remains no power at Terminal 2 and Terminal 4 of Heathrow.
Smith says scientific advisers and the Metropolitan police are investigating the cause of the fire, and disruption is “expected to continue”.
Ryanair and Eurostar have decided to added extra connections to their schedules to help people stranded in London after the closure of Heathrow.
Ryanair said it would operate four extra flights between Dublin and Stansted on Friday afternoon and another four on Saturday morning.
In a statement to the Guardian, Eurostar confirmed plans to run one additional service from London to Paris (departing 3pm) and from Paris to London (departing 8pm), with 882 seats on each train.
‘Highly rare and unusual’ substation fire, scientists say
Helena Horton
The substation fire which brought Heathrow to a standstill was highly rare and unusual, scientists have said.
“Fires like this are not common at all, as equipment is monitored to check its health and the equipment gets replaced once it starts showing signs of age that mean it could be dangerous (for obvious safety reasons),” said Dr Robin Preece, reader in future power systems at the University of Manchester, “Until the reports are completed by the equipment owners, it’s not possible to know the cause of the failure and the fire.”
Oil is used as an electrical insulator in these substations, he said, which means if there is a fire it becomes large and difficult to control: “The whole substation would probably need to be switched off and de-energised in order to let firefighters safely deal with the blaze. You cannot fight a fire in an electrical substation that is energised. Certainly all of the equipment adjacent to the transformer on fire would need to be de-energised.”
He said that “pretty much everyone” will be “back on supply very quickly” as there are sufficient alternate supplies on the electricity grid.
Dr Paul Cuffe, engineering professor at University College Dublin suggested Heathrow should have more resilient energy infrastructure to prevent these situations:
“One could argue that a critical piece of national infrastructure like Heathrow deserves special grid connection arrangements to secure its supply of electricity further. For instance, sometimes critical loads like this are fed from two separate substations to provide redundancy when outages happen. I am not familiar with the exact connection arrangements for Heathrow airport but neither setup would surprise me.”
“It is ultimately a political and economic question to determine the right level of capital investment into grid infrastructure to avoid the problems that outages like this cause. Redundant power supplies for an airport the size of Heathrow do not come free!”
Flights will be diverted across the UK and Europe, but because Heathrow is so massive, these airports will likely run out of capacity, said Dr Guy Gratton, associate professor of aviation and the environment, at Cranfield University.
He explained: “All airline flights must declare their destination and one or two ‘alternates’, which are airports they will go to in the event of problems at their destination. The UK has many large airports and flights have been diverting from Heathrow to airports at least as far away as Manchester. Alternates don’t have to be in the UK so for example Frankfurt or Schiphol may be used. With such a major airport closing however, there is significant risk of running out of capacity at those places.
“The absolute priority will of course be safety, with convenience to the passengers inevitably secondary to that. This is inevitably going to lead to significant disruption and frustrations.”
‘Significant disruption over coming days,’ London mayor says
London mayor Sadiq Khan said that Heathrow has warned “of significant disruption over the coming days,” as he thanked emergency services for responding to the fire at a substation.
Here is his statement in full:
Heathrow Airport is closed today due to a power outage caused by a fire at a nearby electrical substation. The fire is having a significant impact on the local area with the airport closed, other businesses affected and homes left without power.
I know this will be hugely frustrating for the many thousands expecting to travel to and from Heathrow today, the families who have had their power cut and the commuters who have had their journeys disrupted.
I’d like to thank the emergency services who have been working hard overnight to tackle the fire, and I remain in close contact with them, as I have been overnight. Thankfully, there are no reports of any injuries.
Electricity suppliers are working hard to restore power, but Heathrow Airport have said they will be closed all day and has warned of significant disruption over the coming days.
Passengers are advised not to travel to the airport under any circumstances and I urge Londoners to follow the advice of emergency services and their travel providers.
Closed Heathrow airport – in pictures
A local resident said a “bright flash of white” from the electrical substation fire in Hayes preceded an immediate power cut across the area.
Mathew Muirhead was working a night shift on Thursday when he noticed smoke rising from the electrical substation.
“We were stood outside our branch in Hayes and my colleague noticed smoke coming over the trees,” the 42-year-old told PA.
“It was 23.30 when we saw it, we were heading to West Drayton, so we went to check it out, we heard the sirens as we were headed to Bulls Bridge roundabout.
“We saw a bright flash of white and all the lights in town went out.”
“My wife rang me and told me our electric was out – I found out a few hours later that Heathrow was completely shut down.”
