Image source, Getty Images

The London Fire Brigade says the fire at an electricity substation on Nestles Avenue in Hayes - which led to the widespread disruption at Heathrow Airport - is now "under control".

"Our fire investigators will begin their investigation and we will continue working closely with our partners to minimise disruption and support the community," the statement adds, external.

It says a transformer within the substation was alight and around 70 firefighters "worked tirelessly" to stop the flames "as swiftly as possible".

"Thanks to their efforts and coordinated multi-agency response, we successfully contained the fire and prevented further spread," assistant commissioner Pat Goulbourne says.

"Due to the significant smoke, we strongly advise local residents to keep their windows and doors closed, as some smoke will remain for a number of hours today," he adds, saying that scientific advisers will be on-site this morning to monitor the air quality.

Image source, PA Media

A lot of flights were already in the air and some had made significant progress in their journeys towards Heathrow when the disruption began.

As a result, a number of flights have been diverted to airports around the world, according to the website Flightradar24.

Passengers on a flight from Bangkok were among those diverted to Brussels, and some, including passengers on a flight from New York City, have been diverted to Iceland, according to the flight tracking website.

A flight from Boston was diverted to Goose Bay Airport in Canada, and a flight out of New York City made it two hours and forty minutes into its journey before being turned around and sent back to JFK.

Heathrow-bound flights have also been diverted to airports in Ireland, Cardiff, and Manchester, as well as Munich, Frankfurt, Madrid and beyond.

More now from Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, who has been speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

He says he has spoken to National Grid this morning, and the company has described the outage as an "unprecedented event" - but Miliband adds they are working hard to restore power.

"There's obviously been a catastrophic fire at this substation," he says, adding "it appears to have knocked out a back-up generator as well as a substation itself."

"We will have to look hard at the causes, and also the protection and the resilience that is in place for major, major institutions like Heathrow," he adds.

When flights are delayed or cancelled, airlines have a duty to look after you.

That includes providing meals and accommodation, if necessary, and getting you to your destination. The airline should organise putting you on an alternative flight at no extra cost.

Additional losses - such as unused accommodation - might require a claim to a credit card provider, if that was the payment option used.

After that, a claim may need to go to your travel insurance provider. But there is no standard definition of what is covered.

According to the Civil Aviation Authority, if your flight is delayed or cancelled, you may be entitled to compensation – but only when the airline is at fault. If the delay is caused by an "extraordinary circumstance" then passengers are not entitled to compensation.

A little earlier this morning, we heard from Tom Jenkins, chief executive of the European Tourism Association.

Jenkins advises passengers not to panic - but warns those trying to book onward journeys themselves that there is no automatic compensation for an event like this.

"I hope you have travel insurance," he says, adding that a situation like this is out of the airlines' control and usual compensation routes probably will not apply.

Passengers should check with their airlines for more information about what compensation they might be able to receive.

Read our full explainer: What are my rights if my flight is cancelled or delayed?

Victoria Park-Froud
Journalist

We're continuing to hear your stories today about disrupted travel plans while Heathrow is closed.

Anabelle Kiff tells us that she's had her birthday trip to New York halted by Heathrow's closure.

She describes how she and her partner Max were supposed to leave their home in Brighton at 04:00 GMT to head for the airport, but have now decided to stay put.

"Our holiday is now cancelled," Anabelle says. "I feel so gutted".

BBC News reporter Thomas Mackintosh has been caught in the Heathrow closure chaos.

He travelled to Athens for a Scotland football match against Greece - and was trying to catch an early flight home. Listen below as he describes how passengers reacted to the news that their flights were cancelled.

Gem O'Reilly
Reporting from west London

I’ve been here at the Premier Inn in Hayes for the last few hours. People here have come for refuge from the fire, they’ve been up all night worrying about their homes and when they’ll be able to return.

One woman told me her house shook with the fire and described the communication as "shocking".

More than 150 homes have been evacuated following the fire at North Hayes Electrical Substation - and many don’t know when they’ll return.

They say they watched the flames overnight and many are disturbed by what happened here.

British Airways, which operates a dedicated terminal out of Heathrow Airport, says it's expecting significant impacts from the airport's closure.

The airline says it is working as quickly as possible to update passengers on their travel options for "the next 24 hours and beyond".

Passengers were also urged to avoid travelling to the airport "until further notice".

Gem O'Reilly
Reporting from west London

A group of residents who were evacuated following an explosion at the North Hyde power substation say there was little communication overnight, leaving them confused about where to go.

"I was about 100 yards from the explosion," Vaneca Sinclair, 64, tells the BBC.

She recalls that at about 23:30 GMT last night she was getting ready to go to sleep, when "suddenly there was this huge bang and the house just shook". At first, she thought someone had crashed into the wall - but after opening the front door she was confronted with flames "everywhere down at the bottom of the road".

Vaneca grabbed her coat and a pair of trainers, then "ran down the road to see what it was… and realised it was the substation on fire."

Sinclair says police later told her and other residents to return home and grab essentials before evacuating, but no-one told them where to gather.

Eventually, they walked to the nearby Premier Inn, which let them in and allowed them to have hot drinks and use toilets while they waited for more information.

"When the first explosion went off ... I literally just ran out of the house," her neighbour Savita Kapur, 51, adds.

"I have an elderly mother who is in her 80s and not very well at all; I had to escort her into my car and get her out of the area and drop her off to my sisters.

“When I was driving up my road the second explosion went off and the whole ground shook.”

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband has been speaking to BBC Breakfast about the disruption at Heathrow and the surrounding area.

He says National Grid is saying "doing everything they can". He adds it's a fast-moving situation and the government will be doing everything it can "to work with Grid on the work they're doing".

Miliband is then asked how such a busy transport hub is able to be so severely disrupted by a fire at an electrical substation and why it appears to be so vulnerable.

"It's too early to answer that question. We don't know the cause of this fire. It's obviously an unprecedented event," the energy secretary says.

He says the government will want to understand the causes and "what lessons, if any, it can teach us".

Miliband adds: "the Grid have never seen an event quite like this so it is very unprecedented", adding the priority at the moment is to get the fire out, restore power, and "unwinding" the travel disruption.

Sean Dilley
Travel correspondent

Travel problems are going to be slightly longer-lasting for some people.

Diversion to Holland, to Frankfurt, all the way to Manchester for the lucky people who can get trains and coaches down.

Meanwhile, planes parked up in different airports around the world now have to be relocated.

Gatwick Airport had said it would step in and help as much as it can, but it is at capacity and it's not realistic to think it will be able to take on much more.

There are other airports in the London area, such as Stansted and Luton, but capacity is still limited.

Don't even think about travelling to Heathrow Airport whilst it is closed. It is a waste of your time and it will cause more difficulties for emergency services tackling the blaze near the airport.

We can now bring you a look at the scene inside Heathrow while the airport is experiencing a massive power cut.

Pictures show darkened corridors and emergency lights.

It's not just flights - trains around Heathrow are also being disrupted today.

The Heathrow Express, which connects the airport with Paddington station, says there are no services in either direction today, and is advising people not to try and travel to the airport.

On the Elizabeth Line, Transport for London says there is no service between Hayes & Harlington and Heathrow Airport, with severe delays between Paddington and Hayes & Harlington.

So far, Transport for London says that there is good service on the Piccadilly Line.

We've just had another update from National Grid, which says that as of 06:00 GMT power had been restored to 62,000 customers, with 4,900 still without power.

As we reported earlier, it says a fire at its North Hyde substation in West London had damaged equipment and caused a loss of power supply to some areas.

"We are working at speed to restore power supplies as quickly as possible," National Grid says in a post on social media, external, adding "restoration efforts will continue this morning and further updates will be provided."

We can now bring you some of the latest images near North Hyde electrical substation, where emergency services have been operating since the early hours of Friday.

Photos show emergency vehicles filling the streets and firefighters working near the site.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, PA Media

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, PA Media

Simon King
BBC weather presenter and meteorologist

My mum has been in Jamaica for a big birthday over the last week and was due to arrive back at Heathrow this morning.

I’ve woken this morning with a message from her while in the air to say they have been told that because of an "incident at Heathrow", they are flying back to Montego Bay airport.

After travelling almost half way across the Atlantic, they were told that "no airport in Britain could take us so we just had to turn around".

They are still in the air. She is guessing it’ll take a while to figure out now what will happen when they arrive back in Jamaica - or when they’ll eventually get home.

The implications will stretch far wider than Heathrowpublished at 07:15 Greenwich Mean Time 21 March

07:15 GMT 21 March

Sean Dilley
Transport correspondent

Airports and airlines have two key challenges as emergency services work to establish the cause of the nearby fire. First, what on earth can they do to limit the damage to travellers and the economy?

The second challenge extends beyond today. Flight plans are meticulously orchestrated and choreographed to make sure aircraft are in the right place at the right time.

Aircraft will be parked in far-flung airports, passengers will have questions and authorities will be keen to understand the impact of the disruption.

The implications will stretch far wider than Heathrow, and could impact flights much further afield.

Sean Dilley
Transport correspondent

The term "nightmare" is too weak of a descriptor to paint a true picture of the chaos this will cause.

Every type of crisis meeting you can imagine is taking place as authorities at Heathrow, and at airlines who rely on the world's second-largest airport, work furiously to implement backup plans.

There’s a contingency plan for everything, but the issue for flight planners, airlines and airports across the UK and Europe is encapsulated by one word: capacity.

Gatwick has already said it will help as much as it can, but I was standing on the controversial north runway just a few weeks ago, 200m (656 feet) away from the airport's only operational runway. A flight was taking off and leaving around every one minute and 10 seconds.

We were talking expansion that day - but the bosses made it clear, Gatwick is slammed. It’s full. Its ability to help will be highly limited.

Airports in Europe and in the UK are already pitching in. Some passengers have been diverted to Manchester; no doubt they are sighing a breath of relief to be just hundreds of miles away from their intended destination.

Your Voice, Your BBC News

Have your flights been cancelled, diverted or delayed due to the Heathrow Airport disruption? Or have you been evacuated from your home in west London after the fire at the Hayes electrical substation?

If so, you can get in touch via Your Voice, Your BBC News.

Send us your story at www.bbc.co.uk/yourvoice, email bbcyourvoice@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp +44 7756 165803.

Charlotte Gallagher
Reporting from Heathrow Airport

We’re on a bridge overlooking the entrance to Terminal 2 and 3.

It should be full of cars and taxis taking passengers to and from the airport but it’s deserted.

Some people seemingly didn’t hear the airport shut and were queuing at a roundabout nearby - police were there to turn them around though.