Jonathan Smith

Press Briefing on the Hayes Substation Fire Near Heathrow Airport

delivered 21st March 2025

[AUTHENTICITY CERTIFIED: Text version below transcribed directly from audio]

DEPUTY COMMISSIONER SMITH: Good morning, everyone. I'm Jonathan Smith. I am Deputy Commissioner with the London Fire Brigade [LFB].

So, at 20:23 [8:23pm] on the evening of the 20th of March, London Fire Brigade received 212 calls to a fire in a high voltage substation near Heathrow airport.

The fire involved a transformer comprising of 25,000 liters of cooling oil fully alight. This created a major hazard due to the still live, high voltage equipment and the nature of the oil-fueled fire.

LFB was in close contact with blue light partners [emergency services] overnight and at 00:42 [12:42am] the Metropolitan Police declared a major incident.

This remains a very visible and significant incident. Our firefighters worked tirelessly in challenging and very hazardous conditions to bring the fire under control as swiftly as possible.

As of the most recent update that I have received, approximately 10% remains alight, and we are working with SSE to safely resolve this incident. As a result of the incident, 67,000 households were left without power. Currently, 5,000 homes remain without power. There remains no power at Heathrow Airport Terminal 2 or Terminal 4.

The incident caused London Heathrow to close the airport and planes to be rerouted. We continue to work very closely with our partners to minimize disruption. Ten fire engines, two Bulk Foam Units, and one High Volume Pump were on scene at the peak of this incident. This equates to approximately 70 London Fire Brigade personnel.

Firefighters safely evacuated 29 people from neighboring properties and, as a precaution, a 200 meter cordon was established. Working with the Metropolitan Police Service, around 150 people were evacuated to a rest center. The first appliance was on scene within five minutes of mobilization. LFB will continue to maintain an operational response at the scene throughout the day, assisting the National Grid as they assess the site and attempt to restore power.

LFB has been actively engaged in securing access for specialist power network engineers into the site as we appreciate the restoration of power is our priority.¹

London Fire Brigade has fire safety and fire investigation officers working with our scientific advisers and the Metropolitan Police to investigate the cause of the fire. Disruption is expected to continue and we urge people to avoid the area where possible.

I would like to conclude by taking this opportunity to thank firefighters and control officers for their courage and professionalism to bring this incident under control in what were very challenging circumstances.

Happy to take any question[s].

QUESTION: Hi, there, Sky News.

DEPUTY COMMISSIONER SMITH: Hi.

QUESTION: Can you -- How are you monitoring the air quality in the area?

DEPUTY COMMISSIONER SMITH: So, we've got scientific advisers on site as we speak who are constantly monitoring the air quality, and I'm pleased to say at the moment there are no issues with the air quality as we stand; and we expect that to continue.

[cross talk]

QUESTION: Robert -- Robert Wright from the Financial Times. The Times newspaper -- The Times is reporting that anti-terror police are looking at this as a possible terrorism related incident. Can you comment on that?

DEPUTY COMMISSIONER SMITH: Well, as you'll appreciate, I won't be able to comment on the investigations of the Metropolitan Police. All I can say is the Metropolitan Police are investigating the cause of this fire, ably assisted by I -- our fire investigation officers, and we will of course assist with that process.

QUESTION: Ayshah Tull, Channel 4 News. The residents here said they were -- it was taking a long time for them to get out. Can you just tell me how long you took to get these people out of their homes?

DEPUTY COMMISSIONER SMITH: Well, the first thing that the crews had to do when they arrived was obviously to bring the situation under control and to put a cordon in place to stop the situation becoming even worse. Our priority in all of these circumstances is always to save and protect life, so any decision to hold residents back would have been taken by the incident commanders to ensure their safety and enable our crews to bring the incident under control.

QUESTION: And what can you tell us about this just acrid smell in
the air and the back of the throat? You're saying that the air quality is fine. It doesn't seem it standing here.

DEPUTY COMMISSIONER SMITH: Now...we have very, very good scientific advisers who advise us to make sure that we are doing what we need to to ensure the quality of the air. Now, as we stand at the moment, the foam blanket that we've been able to put onto the fuel that was on fire has contained that. And yes, there is still a smell in the air but the safety of the air has been given the all-clear by our scientific advice. We'll continue to monitor that and make sure that people
have the reassurance that they need.

QUESTION: Has there been a fire at the substation here before?

DEPUTY COMMISSIONER SMITH: I'm afraid I'm unaware of any history with this particular -- particular site.

QUESTION: And in terms of Heathrow Airport, and there not being any sort of backup for the power there, can you sort of comment on -- on why that might be?

DEPUTY COMMISSIONER SMITH: Well, as you'll appreciate there will be a full debrief of this incident that will involve all of the partners that were part of this incident. And all of those questions will be raised during -- during that debrief, so I'm unable to comment further on that point.

QUESTION: Are you able to estimate -- Are you able to estimate the cost of the fire?

DEPUTY COMMISSIONER SMITH: I'm afraid I'm unable to give that detail, so --

QUESTION: How --  How long will it take you to get this under control now? You said 10%....

DEPUTY COMMISSIONER SMITH: So, up to -- So as we stand at the moment, about 10% is still burning. We've got a foam layer that's on the fuel as we speak, and that is having the desired impact in terms of reducing the temperature of the fire. And we're now working with the National Grid and with SSE to make sure that we can restore power as soon as possible. So, as we stand at the moment, this is one of those types of fire that burns for a significant period of time.

QUESTION: Because of the cooling.

DEPUTY COMMISSIONER SMITH: Because of the -- What we have to do is cool that down.

QUESTION: Yeah.

DEPUTY COMMISSIONER SMITH: And it's the nature of the -- the cooling agent or the oil that was on fire, and that takes time to bring that under control.

QUESTION: Yeah.

DEPUTY COMMISSIONER SMITH: However, we are confident that we can work with our partners to restore power as soon as possible.

QUESTION: And, do -- do you have any hazmat officers? I mean, do you wear a -- are there any hazardous materials on there that we need to be concerned about?

DEPUTY COMMISSIONER SMITH: So, no. So, it goes back to the question around the air quality, so that's why we've got our scientific advisers on scene who constantly monitor the air quality to ensure that everyone has the reassurance that the air that you're breathing at the moment is safe.

QUESTION:  So, there's no hazmat need here whatsoever.

DEPUTY COMMISSIONER SMITH: So, we do have hazmat officers here just to maintain our confidence in our ability to deal with anything, should it erupt again. But as we stand at the moment, the fire is under control; the air quality is good; and we don't anticipate any further safety issues for members of the public.²

UNIDENTIFIED: Just one more question, guys. Sorry. One more question....

QUESTION: Jonathan [inaudible]. You've also spoken about your team working tirelessly through the night. I just wonder, were any firefighters, or indeed any people here, injured by the blaze?

DEPUTY COMMISSIONER SMITH: So, I'm pleased to report as we stand at the moment, no one has been injured. Our firefighters, as you can imagine, worked incredibly hard in what were very, very arduous circumstances to bring the incident under control. But they did so professionally; they did so safely; and we don't have any injuries to report either to members of the public or to our firefighting crews.³

Apologies, everyone. That's the last question I'm able to take, but thank you very much for your questions.

Thank you.

Page Updated: 3/25/25

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