Fire affects UK's biggest airport and nearby homes
The roads to the airport have been closed by emergency services
- Published
Heathrow Airport will be closed all day after losing power following a fire at a nearby electrical substation.
Six schools near to the fire have been closed for the day, more than 16,000 homes lost power, and around 150 people had to be moved from their houses to a safer area.
What caused the fire isn't known yet but Heathrow, the UK's busiest airport, has told passengers not to come to the airport until it reopens and has warned of "significant disruption" over the coming days.
Emergency services are working on putting the fire out and BBC transport correspondent Sean Dilly says that "a nightmare" isn't really a strong enough description for the chaos this incident will cause.
The fire is at a nearby electrical power station
At least 1,351 flights to and from what is the world's second-largest airport could be cancelled today, according to flight tracking website Flightradar24.
Some flights due to arrive at Heathrow have turned around, not started their journey, or have been told to fly to other UK airport such as Gatwick or Manchester, with passengers making their way home from there.
Travel journalist Simon Calder says he believes this is the first time London Heathrow has completely shut down since 2010.
"This is the busiest day of the week at the busiest airport in Europe," he added.
How are children and families being affected by Heathrow closure?
Lots of people who travel through Heathrow airport are on the move as part of their jobs. But lots of others are there for other reasons too.
For example, there's a big weekend of international sport ahead with lots of travelling involved for fans and players - the Women's Six Nations starts and England, Wales and Northern Ireland are all playing football matches.
Fans flying back from Scotland's Nations League match in Greece last night have been impacted too.
Pupils who are on school trips as part of competition events, ski trips or language trips are also being affected.
Arthur's story
One person affected is Arthur who was travelling for an under-12s rugby trip.
As part of a group, including two boys' teams and a girls' team, he was due to fly to Ireland today from Heathrow, for matches against teams in Dublin.
He had been part of efforts to raise the money to pay for the trip, and even did a sponsored 15km run.
"It was loads of months of hard work and fundraising, just to be cancelled," Arthur said.
This morning the club's flights were cancelled, but luckily his team have been able to hire coaches, so they could travel to Ireland by ferry instead.
Good luck, Arthur!
Family delays
Passengers are trying to work out how to rearrange their trips or get their money back
Children who have parents or family members who have been working abroad, and who are travelling home for the weekend, might see their loved ones' flight arrivals delayed, moved or even cancelled.
People who have family members around the world often use Heathrow to get to places in the Middle East, Africa, Australia and Asia.
For instance, Mahmoud Ali who works at a Domino's Pizza in London told the BBC he had been due to fly to Pakistan to be with his wife and children, who he has not seen since last summer.
Why is Heathrow Airport so important?
London's Heathrow airport is the UK's major international airport, and one of busiest in Europe and the world.
About 83.9 million passengers travelled through its terminals in 2024 and in February 2025, 5.7 million passengers passed through.
You can fly from Heathrow to more than 230 destinations in nearly 90 countries.
As well as passengers flying directly on holiday from Heathrow, lots of travellers stop off at Heathrow as part of a longer flight before they head off to their final destination, like changing buses or trains at a station.
For example passengers going on holiday from Leeds to Florida, USA, might actually fly from Leeds-Bradford Airport, to Heathrow Airport, then onto Florida.
And as well as holiday-makers, 90,000 people actually work there too.