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Heathrow closure: Sub-station fire not suspicious, say police | Heathrow closure: Sub-station fire not suspicious, say police |
(31 minutes later) | |
The substation fire resulted in the closure of Heathrow, the UK's busiest airport | The substation fire resulted in the closure of Heathrow, the UK's busiest airport |
There is no evidence to suggest the substation fire that shut down Heathrow airport was suspicious, police say. | There is no evidence to suggest the substation fire that shut down Heathrow airport was suspicious, police say. |
The fire, which broke out in Hayes on Friday, resulted in the closure of Britain's busiest airport for a day. | The fire, which broke out in Hayes on Friday, resulted in the closure of Britain's busiest airport for a day. |
Counter-terrorism officers were briefly drafted in to investigate. However, the Metropolitan Police said on Tuesday that the incident was no longer being treated as a "potentially criminal matter". | Counter-terrorism officers were briefly drafted in to investigate. However, the Metropolitan Police said on Tuesday that the incident was no longer being treated as a "potentially criminal matter". |
Officers continue to support the London Fire Brigade, the National Grid and "other partners" to investigate the cause of the blaze. | Officers continue to support the London Fire Brigade, the National Grid and "other partners" to investigate the cause of the blaze. |
Police say they will consider "any relevant new information or evidence" should any come to light. | Police say they will consider "any relevant new information or evidence" should any come to light. |
While investigations into the cause of the blaze are ongoing, it has been reported the fire started in a transformer within the substation in Hayes around midnight. | |
The blaze caused a temporary power outage at the airport that led to thousands of cancelled flights on Friday and stranded passengers across the world. | |
Nearly 1,400 flights were disrupted by the airport's closure, according to air traffic website flightradar24.com. Around 120 flights were diverted elsewhere. | |
The incident also disrupted the supply of millions of pounds of goods that go through the airport. | |
More than 63,000 homes lost power in the outage caused by the fire, according to energy supplier Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks. | |
Operations at the airport were halted for 18 hours on Friday, with bosses saying it was "open and fully operational" by Saturday morning. | |
However, the chaos has raised concerns about the resilience of the major transport hub - and brought into question the UK's energy resilience more broadly. | |
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband has called for lessons to be learned from the incident. | |
Substations, operated by the National Grid, are designed to produce, convert, and distribute electricity at suitable voltage levels. | |
Heathrow uses three electricity substations. | |
The airport also has emergency back-up power supplies of its own, which use diesel generators and batteries. These supplies only keep crucial safety systems running, such as landing equipment and runway lights. | |
Heathrow's chief executive has said the shutdown was caused not by a lack of power, but by the time it took to switch from the damaged substation to the energy provided by the two other operational substations. | |
Airport bosses have been criticised for their decision to shut Heathrow down following the claim that it had enough power despite the substation fire. | |
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer told the BBC he was "deeply concerned" by the closure of the airport, adding "there are questions" for managers to answer. | |
The airport has said "lessons can and will be learned". |
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