A mysterious fire shuts down Heathrow Airport and leaves thousands of
passengers stranded, was it an accident?

On a typical Friday, Heathrow Airport is buzzing with excited travellers ready to go on their holidays and others are ready to return home. But this Friday was different. Everything stopped suddenly and passengers were stranded, many departure boards started flashing “CANCELLED” on every flight, and chaos erupted across Heathrow. But was this meant to happen or was it purely accidental? 

On the 20th March 2025 at around 11 pm the London fire brigade was called to Hayes in West London to put out a fire at an electrical substation. The fire caused the UK’s busiest airport to be shut down for a day with over 1,300 flights cancelled. More than 20,000 litres of oil caught fire. The counter terrorism police were called to lead the investigation into what caused the fire, as it also led to thousands of homes losing power, they thought there was a possibility this might not have been an accident. 

For one man, 45 year old David Wright, it’s hard to believe that there was anything other than foul play behind this incident. While speaking to David I soon realised he did not have much belief in this being an accident and he made me understand that you never know what someone is thinking, no matter how crazy or mundane it may be. 

It is not that common to come across climate change deniers, unless you’re scrolling through a loophole of your uncle’s midnight Facebook posts, but for David he believes that climate change is government controlled and we are being manipulated into a certain way of thinking. David suggests that the idea of a net zero England is all for money: 

“It’s not about saving the planet, it’s about how much money they can get out of us. Electric cars and solar panels, it’s a huge money making scheme and a hoax, I find it hard to believe there is anyone who really cares about climate change, none of us normal folk would benefit from any of the changes and it would cost us even more money.” 

I soon realised that every time David says ‘they’ he’s referring to the ‘money-loving’ government as he had referred to them many times. Even though I believe he has a point in a certain aspect, we know most of us like money and would like more of it and that is how the world works. But I couldn’t grasp the idea of climate change as a hoax, but maybe David can convince me. 

There were many passengers stranded at Heathrow, I managed to get in touch with one, 34 year old, Lara Whitworth, whom I contacted through Facebook after she posted her dismay about her delays to Lisbon. She shared with me what she thought might have happened: “I was surprised to find out that the entire airport relies on just one single substation. I’ve been waiting to go on my holiday for months, luckily I managed to get a flight out on Saturday but my first day was non refundable so it was a shame really.” 

When I mentioned to Lara the possibility of foul play and David’s opinion of the incident, she didn’t shrug it off completely, “I think sometimes these things will happen, but it is very odd, I didn’t even think about activists, I mainly thought it was an accident or possibly even a terror attack but nothing else happened, the day after everyone carried on as normal. Flights were just rescheduled as if it hadn’t even happened anyway.”

To the average person, David’s theory about the substation and his outright denial of climate change may seem absurd, however he is far from alone. Many others climate change deniers are out there and believe it is one huge myth. 

I joined a reddit group dedicated to climate change theories called “Climate Skeptics Opinions” which revolves around theories people have to disprove climate change. One user says “There is no evidence it’s real, CO2 can’t even melt an ice cube, the government wants to reconfigure all of civilization but they won’t even do any experiments to prove it.” Theories like David’s clearly resonate with some people and their main points seem to refer to climate change as a government control conspiracy. 

To explain some of these geography terms because I will be of no use in that aspect, I spoke to Isobel Handler, a member of the Facebook group “Environmentalists UK” to have a better understanding. “Net zero is a target the government has set to reduce carbon emissions, it’s the balance between the amount of greenhouse gases that are produced, and what we as people are removing from the planet.

Fossil fuel companies make billions but renewable energy is becoming cheaper, more accessible and efficient, and if we all contribute to making the planet more sustainable every day we can get there even quicker.” 

Isobel advocates for climate change through her social media and is very sustainable and she is vegan. I spoke to Isobel about David’s views on climate change and the incident at Heathrow airport, she suggests that David is “mad and doesn’t know what he’s talking about.” 

“It’s really frustrating, when people are driven by conspiracies about something that is happening right in front of them. There is no evidence that any climate change activists were behind it. These accusations are just spreading fear and hatred about a group of people who have had nothing to do with it. People claim we’re all being manipulated but all they’re doing is spreading misinformation out to people who might even believe them, which won’t get any of us anywhere.” 

David believes that the electrical substation fire was no accident and he suggests it was a calculated move, “These groups want to make us suffer,” he says “they’ve got nothing else to do with their lives. They want higher prices for everything, more expensive travel, so we will all live in a nightmare. They want to force us to live like them, but I don’t think that fire was random, they were sending us a message.”

David goes on to mention his initial thoughts, “the first thing I thought that happened was that it was sabotaged by climate change ‘morons,’ the government will never reach net zero by 2050. 

I think someone has gone and messed with the crude oil that’s underneath the substation, to make sure that Heathrow was shut down, so it would have ramifications all over the world. They wanted to stop the flights and see if it would go on for days.” 

“That’s why people are coming on the TV now after it’s happened, talking about how we can’t rely on all these energy sources and we have to go net zero as soon as possible, it’s all rubbish. It’s all to get us to pay our tax money to environment things, next thing you know we’ll be having a climate tax.”

In another one of David’s digs against climate change he even questions electric cars! He suggests that “nobody is buying electric cars anymore, the only people that buy them are industries who use them as their company cars, people don’t buy them because they are not reliable, you can’t drive anywhere in them without having to charge them up” he says that “the government are pushing us for this net zero crap so we’ll by useless expensive things like electric cars, it’s all about control.” 

After picking David’s brain for hours I gathered that he wouldn’t be able to come around to the idea that climate change had nothing to do with the Heathrow fire and that it is in fact a real problem. “The government is not telling us that the climate changers have caused this, they want to protect them and their ‘woke’ ideas. I’ve seen it on the news, everyone is panicking about it, they like to scare us and make us do as we’re told, and I’m telling you it’s very fishy.” 

I think it’s safe to say I was not convinced by David, and I do not believe that climate change is a hoax. However it was interesting to hear his views on such an important topic. It is not uncommon for people to slander climate change, many think it is ‘woke nonsense’ or in David’s case, a complete conspiracy. While David’s views remain in skepticism and conspiracy these conversations remind us that we all have very different opinions and it is clear that the climate change debate may never be settled. The counter terroism police concluded there was no foul play involved in the incident and the cause was a transformer containing insulating oil which was alight. 

The substation fire that closed down Heathrow was just a catalyst in David’s reaction to the climate change conspiracies in his mind and there has been no official proof of foul play. The mainstream media will continue to advocate for climate change action and these groups will only get bigger much to David’s disgust. For David this fire was a symbol of something bigger, the lack of answers for him must be frustrating and it will only reinforce his beliefs that this was no accident. He might not have convinced me but was it enough to convince you? Even just a little?

“This won’t be the last thing you know, there is definitely more to come.”