GLOBAL CHAOS

Single substation fire cripples busiest travel hub in Europe

- SIMON MURPHY

Blasts heard by residents who had to evacuate homes , 200K passengers left stranded after flights axed all day.

RESIDENTS living near Heathrow yesterday told how they heard two blasts at the electrical plant that went up in flames, sparking travel chaos around the world.

The substation inferno crippled Europe's busiest airport for an entire day, leaving passengers stranded in London and countries far and wide, and plunging flights for many over the next few days into doubt.

Heathrow chief executive Thomas Woldbye called the shutdown "unprecedented" and there were questions raised about why a major global hub is reliant on just one electricity source.

A huge plume of smoke filled the night sky as the fire raged in Hayes, West London. It started at 11.23pm on Thursday and burned through the night and most of yesterday.

Around 200,000 passengers were affected by the closure with more than 1350 planes reportedly due to take off and land at the airport.

Some flights resumed last night in a bid to shift the backlog. A British Airways jet to Riyadh in Saudi Arabia was the first to leave.

Anti-terror police were initially called to investigate the inferno, after the blasts set light to 25,000 litres of cooling oil.

But London Fire Brigade last night revealed it believed the blaze was "nonsuspicious" and Scotland Yard said there was "no indication of foul play". Woldbye insisted the blaze was of a "major severity". He added: "It's not a small fire.