Heathrow Airport to close Friday after fire knocks out power to part of London
London (AP): Britain's Heathrow Airport will be closed Friday after an electrical substation fire knocked out its power, potentially affecting hundreds of thousands of passengers who use one of Europe's biggest travel hubs.
Thousands of homes also lost power and about 150 people had to be evacuated after a transformer within an electrical substation caught fire in west London.
“To maintain the safety of our passengers and colleagues, we have no choice but to close Heathrow” for the full day Friday, the airport's statement said. “We expect significant disruption over the coming days, and passengers should not travel to the airport under any circumstances until the airport reopens.”
Due to a fire at an electrical substation supplying the airport, Heathrow is experiencing a significant power outage.
— Heathrow Airport (@HeathrowAirport) March 21, 2025
To maintain the safety of our passengers and colleagues, Heathrow will be closed until 23h59 on 21 March.
Passengers are advised not to travel to the airport… pic.twitter.com/7SWNJP8ojd
It said it will provide an update on its operations when it has more information on restoring power available.
Heathrow is one of the world's busiest airports for international travel. It had its busiest January on record earlier this year, with more than 6.3 million passengers, up more than 5% for the same period last year. January also was the 11th month in a row it averaged over 200,000 passengers a day, with the airport citing transatlantic travel as a key contributor.
The U.K. government earlier this year approved building a third runway at the airport to boost the economy and connectivity to the world.
London Fire Brigade said 10 fire engines and around 70 firefighters were on the scene of the fire.
“The fire has caused a power outage affecting a large number of homes and local businesses, and we are working closely with our partners to minimize disruption,” Assistant Commissioner Pat Goulbourne said.
Footage posted to social media showed huge flames and large plumes of smoke coming from the facility.
📹 POWER BLAZE IN LONDON SHUTS DOWN UK’S BUSIEST AIRPORT, HEATHROW – REPORTS
— Sputnik (@SputnikInt) March 21, 2025
Firefighters are struggling to contain a major blaze at the Hayes electrical substation, causing evacuations and widespread power outages, Sky News reported.
Videos from social media pic.twitter.com/XwfAopJYvq
Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks said in a post on X the power outage affected more than 16,300 homes.
Emergency services were called to the scene at 11.23 pm Thursday. The cause of the fire is yet to be determined.
Goulbourne urged people to take safety precautions and avoid the area as crews worked to extinguish the blaze.
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HC to decide if gram panchayat members can continue in Manipur post tenure: SC
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Thursday said the high court would decide whether the elected gram panchayat members, whose five-year tenure was over in Manipur, were entitled to continue in their posts in the event of the appointment of an administrative committee or an administrator.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh said it would like to have the benefit of the view of the high court in the matter and set a three-month time frame to adjudicate the legal question.
"The question that falls for consideration in this case is that whether the elected member of the Gram Panchayat whose five-year tenure is over was entitled to continue as members of the gram panchayat in the event of appointment of administrative committee or administrator, as contemplated under Section 22 of the Manipur Panchayati Raj Act of 1994," the bench noted.
The Manipur government’s counsel said the state could not hold panchayat elections due to the unprecedented violence.
"Since, we would like to have the advantage of the opinion of the high court, we dispose of the special leave petition without expressing any opinion on merits, with the request to the chief justice of Manipur High Court to post the main case before a division bench at the earliest. We further request the division bench, before whom the matter is listed, to provide expeditious hearing with an endeavour to resolve the controversy within three months," the bench said.
The bench noted that provision of Manipur Panchayati Raj Act was amended to substitute the word "cease" with the word "continue" with respect to the tenure of the elected members of the gram panchayat.
The petitioners have challenged a high court order and submitted that since elections in gram panchayat could not be held in Manipur for various reasons, the previously elected members of the panchayat were entitled to continue as per the amended Section 22 (3) of 1994 Act.
Section 22 deals with the power of deputy commissioner to appoint an administrative committee or an administrator for a period of six months, which will then oversee the election.
Section 22 (3) of the law says once the administrative committee or an administrator is appointed by the deputy commissioner, the elected members of earlier gram panchayat shall cease to exist.
The top court said what has been challenged before it was an interlocutory order of the high court and the main petition in which the question of law that had been raised was still pending.
The original petitioners before the high court were elected representatives at the fifth general elections for gram panchayats and the zilla parishads who sought a direction to continue in the office beyond the period of five years as stipulated by law as elections were last held in 2017.
They sought to continue as panchayat members till the time the state election commission notified the election for the sixth general elections for gram panchayats and zilla parishads.
On February 29, last year, the high court in its interim order gave liberty to Manipur government to appoint an administrative committee for each gram panchayat and zilla parishad in accordance with law and the provision of the Act.
