Blaze that shut Heathrow not suspicious: London police

Police no longer treat Heathrow substation fire as a criminal matter. Photo / 123rf

• Police in London are no longer treating the Heathrow substation fire as a criminal matter.
• The fire caused Heathrow’s closure, affecting 1350 flights and thousands of passengers.
• Investigations found no evidence of suspicious activity; focus is now on electrical equipment.

Police in London said today NZT that a fire at an electricity substation that closed Heathrow Airport is no longer being treated as a criminal matter.

Counter-terror police had been leading the investigation into the blaze that triggered the airport’s complete closure for most of Friday, affecting thousands of passengers around the world.

The Metropolitan Police said that following inquiries “officers have found no evidence to suggest that the incident was suspicious in nature”.

“As such, we are no longer treating this as a potentially criminal matter,” it said in a statement.

About 1350 flights were affected by Friday’s shutdown, according to the Flightradar24 tracking website.

Fire officials have said they also believe the blaze at the substation in Hayes in west London to be “non-suspicious”, with inquiries set to focus on “electrical distribution equipment”.

The blaze knocked out power at the London airport, but National Grid chief executive John Pettigrew told the Financial Times that power had remained available to the airport in west London through two other substations.

Airport officials, however, said the prolonged closure was because of the time it took to switch to the other substations and make safety checks.

“Hundreds of critical systems across the airport were required to be safely powered down and then safely and systematically rebooted,” a Heathrow Airport spokesperson said.

“Given Heathrow’s size and operational complexity, safely restarting operations after a disruption of this magnitude was a significant challenge,” the spokesperson added.