- Title: Passengers at Heathrow airport stranded after fire causes power outage
- Date: 21st March 2025
- Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (MARCH 21, 2025) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF DAMAGED ELECTRICITY SUBSTATION POLICE OFFICER AT CORDON (SOUNDBITE) (English) INDEPENDENT AIR TRANSPORT CONSULTANT, JOHN STRICKLAND, SAYING: "Heathrow is the busiest airport in the UK and Europe. It's in the top five airports globally. It's the only hub airport for the UK. It's running at full capacity,
- Embargoed:
- Keywords: Heathrow Airport Terminal 5 sub-station fire
- Location: LONDON, ENLGAND, UNITED KINGDOM
- City: LONDON, ENLGAND, UNITED KINGDOM
- Country: UK
- Topics: Disaster/Accidents,Europe,Fires
- Reuters ID: LVA001057721032025RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Britain's Heathrow Airport was shut on Friday (March 21) after a huge fire at a nearby electrical substation wiped out its power, disrupting flight schedules around the world.
Around 70 firefighters were tackling the blaze in the west of London, which led to a mass power outage at Heathrow, Europe's busiest and the world's fifth-busiest airport, and also knocked out its back-up power system.
Video showed passengers stranded at Heathrow's Terminal 5 and police officers turning vehicles away from the airport.
Around 150 people were evacuated from nearby buildings and thousands of properties were without power.
The fire brigade said the cause of the fire was not known.
Heathrow said the airport, which was due to handle 1,351 flights during the day, flying up to 291,000 passengers, would stay closed until midnight as it was experiencing a significant power outage.
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