The Metropolitan Police says it is no longer treating a fire, that led to the closure of Heathrow Airport last week, as a potentially criminal matter.
Fire crews were called to reports of a transformer alight at North Hyde substation in Hayes, west London, at 11.23pm on Thursday, the London Fire Brigade (LFB) said.
The blaze at the substation, which supplies electricity to Heathrow about 1.5 miles away, caused a power outage which meant Europe’s biggest airport had “no choice but to close”.
Heathrow Airport. Pic: AP
It was shut for most of last Friday, with the 16-hour closure resulting in more than 1,000 flights to and from Heathrow being cancelled and hundreds of thousands of passengers affected.
The Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism Command had been leading the investigation to establish the cause of the blaze.
A statement by the police on Tuesday said: “Following enquiries to date, 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, although we continue to support other partners, including colleagues from National Grid, London Fire Brigade and SSEN, with whom we remain in close contact.”
The cause of the fire will continue to be investigated by National Grid, London Fire Brigade and Southern Electricity Network.
Around 200,000 passengers were disrupted after Heathrow was closed to all flights on Friday until around 6pm following the fire.
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Heathrow’s chief executive Thomas Woldbye will be grilled by MPs on 2 April at a one-off session investigating the closure of the airport.
Meanwhile on Monday, a body representing more than 90 airlines using Heathrow Airport threatened to take legal action if a settlement over the costs they incurred from Friday’s day-long closure is not reached.
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