LONDON — Britain’s Heathrow Airport shall be closed Friday after a fireplace at {an electrical} substation knocked out energy to the airport and hundreds of properties.
About 150 folks needed to be evacuated after a transformer inside {an electrical} substation caught fireplace in west London.
“To take care of the security of our passengers and colleagues, we’ve no selection however to shut Heathrow” for the total day Friday, the airport’s assertion mentioned. “We anticipate vital disruption over the approaching days, and passengers mustn’t journey to the airport beneath any circumstances till the airport reopens.”
It mentioned it can present an replace on its operations when it has extra info on restoring energy accessible.
London Fireplace Brigade mentioned 10 fireplace engines and round 70 firefighters had been on the scene.
“The fireplace has precipitated an influence outage affecting a lot of properties and native companies, and we’re working carefully with our companions to reduce disruption,” Assistant Commissioner Pat Goulbourne mentioned.
Footage posted to social media confirmed big flames and huge plumes of smoke coming from the power.
Scottish and Southern Electrical energy Networks mentioned in a publish on X the ability outage affected greater than 16,300 properties.
Emergency providers had been referred to as to the scene at 11.23 p.m. Thursday. The reason for the fireplace is but to be decided.
Goulbourne urged folks to take security precautions and keep away from the realm as crews labored to extinguish the blaze.
