Huge fire closes UK's Heathrow Airport, global flight schedules disrupted

The Star

Britain's Heathrow Airport said it would be closed all of Friday (March 21) after a huge fire at a nearby electrical substation wiped out power, disrupting flight schedules around the world.   Read more at https://tinyurl.com/mc3pu9a3   WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

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00:00Britain's Heathrow Airport will remain closed throughout Friday after a massive fire at

00:07a nearby electrical substation triggered a widespread power outage, severely disrupting

00:12global flight schedules.

00:14The London Fire Brigade deployed around 70 firefighters to battle the blaze, which caused

00:19Heathrow, Europe's busiest and the world's fifth busiest airport, to lose power.

00:25Approximately 150 people were evacuated from nearby buildings, while thousands of properties

00:31remain without electricity.

00:34According to flight tracking website Flightradar24, at least 120 inbound flights had to be diverted

00:40to other airports, while 1,351 flights were scheduled to land and take off at Heathrow

00:46on Friday.

00:48The unprecedented shutdown is expected to cause major disruptions to global travel,

00:53tourism and trade, with no clear timeline for power restoration.

00:57Meanwhile, homes and businesses near the affected area remain in darkness as emergency crews

01:03work to contain the situation.

01:06Authorities have enforced a 200-metre safety cordon around the fire zone as investigations

01:11begin into the cause of the blaze.

01:23For more UN videos visit www.un.org

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