A major disruption to trains to and from Heathrow Airport has been caused by a trackside grass fire that began at 16:00 BST on Saturday. National Rail expects "major disruption" until the end of the day due to blocked lines between London Paddington station and Heathrow's terminals, as well as Reading. Six fire engines and around 40 crew members are battling the blaze near Scrubs Lane in North Kensington. The incident comes hours after a separate grass fire on Heathrow's airfield shut a runway earlier in the day, causing at least two flights to be diverted.
Written by the local model on 2026-09-05,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event.
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No political leaning scored for article 4836 · logged 2026-09-05
- Published
Trains to and from Heathrow Airport have been halted after a trackside grass fire caused delays and cancellations.
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fire → publish → delays
National Rail said "major disruption" was expected until the end of Saturday following the incident which began shortly after 16:00 BST.
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which → say → BST
A statement said all lines were blocked between London Paddington station and Heathrow's terminals, as well as Reading, due to "a failure of the electricity supply caused by a fire next to the track".
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lines → say → track
It comes hours after a separate grass fire on Heathrow's airfield shut a runway earlier on Saturday.
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fire → come → Saturday
Pictures on social media showed crowds of stranded passengers at Paddington, one of London's main rail hubs.
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Pictures → show → hubs
London Fire Brigade said six fire engines and around 40 crew members were tackling the blaze near Scrubs Lane, North Kensington.
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engines → say → Lane
Great Western Railway, external cancelled its services to Reading and no Elizabeth line or Heathrow Express services were running between Paddington and Heathrow on Saturday night.
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line → cancel → night
The airport advised passengers to leave extra time for their journeys, adding that the Piccadilly line, which runs services to the airport, also has delays.
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which → advise → delays
Earlier on Saturday, Heathrow's southern runway was closed while crews tackled a grass fire on the airfield.
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crews → close → airfield
It caused some disruption with at least two flights diverted elsewhere.
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flights → cause → disruption
Heathrow apologised for any disruption and said the fire was extinguished quickly.
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fire → apologise → disruption
That comes weeks after another grass fire near Heathrow's southern runway which forced 18 flights to divert and destroyed a large area of grassland.
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which → come → grassland
While weather has cooled across much of the UK in recent days following record-breaking heat over the summer, fire crews have still been warning of wildfire risks.
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crews → cool → risks
The Met Office's Fire Severity Index, external shows that if a wildfire was to occur, it would have a "high" fire severity in most of south-east England and some of the Midlands.
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it → show → Midlands
The fire severity is "exceptional", the highest level on the index, in some parts of London including Heathrow, as well as on the Essex and Suffolk coasts.
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severity → include → coasts
