Heathrow Airport has announced a closure due to a significant power outage caused by a fire at an electrical substation. The London Fire Brigade responded quickly, with ten fire engines and around 70 firefighters tackling the blaze. Assistant Commissioner Pat Goulbourne indicated that the situation may lead to prolonged disruption and advised the public to avoid the area. Despite the proximity of several datacenters, they currently show no signs of outage. Typically equipped with backup power systems, these facilities may maintain operations throughout Heathrow's expected outage.
Due to a fire at an electrical substation supplying the airport, Heathrow is experiencing a significant power outage. To maintain the safety of our passengers and colleagues, Heathrow will be closed until 23:59 on 21 March.
This will be a prolonged incident, with crews remaining on scene throughout the night. As we head into the morning, disruption is expected to increase, and we urge people to avoid the area wherever possible.
Status pages for AWS, Rackspace, Digital Realty, Virtus, and Colt all report no outages, but the impact of any issues may not yet be apparent.
Datacenters typically use batteries, flywheels, and diesel generators to provide emergency power, and many can run for days without power flowing in from the grid.
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