21-03-2025
How was Britain's biggest airport brought to a standstill by a single fire?
SIR – I'm sure I am not alone in wondering how a fire in a single electricity substation was able to bring one of the world's busiest airports to a complete standstill (' Counter-terror police investigate Heathrow airport fire ', March 21).
Where was the resilience planning? It is not hard to imagine what could happen to such vulnerable infrastructure in a conflict scenario.
The cost of more sophisticated back-up facilities would surely be lower than the cost of this power outage to businesses and the economy.
Chris Willsher
Kinross
SIR – You don't have to be an expert in risk assessment to see that Heathow requires more than one substation, and that each substation should be capable of powering the entire airport.
Given its overwhelming importance to the British economy, why is the Energy Secretary only now saying that 'we will have to look hard at… the protection and the resilience that is in place for major, major institutions like Heathrow.'
This should have happened already. The incompetence is breathtaking.
Tom Roberts
London SW17
SIR – The fact that the back-up generator was on the same site as the main distribution transformers is logical in one sense, but totally illogical in terms of power security.
Where else do we find such an arrangement? Not at critical sites such as hospitals, I hope.
Michael Marks
Leominster, Herefordshire
SIR – In the week that Heathrow Airport was put out of action by a substation fire, we received a letter from BT telling us that our copper landline was going to be replaced with, in effect, an internet-based telephone service.
The letter went on to say that, in the event of a power cut or loss of internet connectivity, the phone would not work – even for 999 calls.
Is this country asleep at the wheel? We need to wake up and have a serious conversation about the resilience of our infrastructure – now.
