A massive fire at a power substation near London’s Heathrow Airport caused major disruptions on Friday, shutting down Europe’s busiest travel hub and leaving tens of thousands of homes without power. Investigators suspect that a fault in a transformer carrying 275,000 volts triggered the blaze, which spread due to a failure in safety mechanisms. The fire disabled both the main power supply and a backup system, delaying recovery efforts. 

While counterterrorism police initially took charge of the investigation due to the site’s significance, officials later stated that they did not consider the incident suspicious. However, the failure raised concerns about the resilience of Britain’s energy infrastructure. If an accident can cripple a critical transportation hub, it signals vulnerabilities in the power grid; if sabotage were involved, it would highlight security risks to major infrastructure.

Political leaders, including Prime Minister Keir Starmer and London Mayor Sadiq Khan, reassured the public, but questions remain about why Heathrow lacked sufficient backup power. Lawmakers have called for a review of infrastructure preparedness, especially given the airport’s reliance on a single energy source.

By Friday afternoon, the National Grid managed to restore power through a temporary reconfiguration, allowing partial airport operations to resume. Flights began landing in the evening, with full service expected to return by Saturday. However, uncertainty lingers over whether Britain’s aging power infrastructure can withstand future crises.

The incident at Heathrow mirrors broader global concerns about the vulnerability of critical infrastructure to both technical failures and potential attacks. Similar disruptions have occurred in airports and power grids worldwide, raising alarms about energy security. As governments invest heavily in infrastructure resilience, events like this reinforce the need for improved safeguards, diversified energy sources, and contingency plans to prevent widespread outages.