Marcellus Gas Shields Pittsburgh Airport from Outages like Heathrow

On Friday, March 21, 2025, Heathrow Airport (in London), one of the world’s busiest airports, experienced a complete shutdown due to a massive fire at the North Hyde electrical substation in Hayes, west London, approximately 1.5 miles from the airport. The blaze, which began late Thursday night around 11:23 PM GMT, involved a transformer containing 25,000 liters of cooling oil. It caused a significant power outage, knocking out the primary substation and its backup system. This led to the cancellation of over 1,300 flights, affecting an estimated 200,000 to 290,000 passengers and causing widespread travel disruptions globally. The London Fire Brigade deployed 10 engines and around 70 firefighters to control the fire, which was mostly contained by Friday evening, though 5% remained active in isolated hotspots. What happened at Heathrow could not happen at Pittsburgh International Airport. Why? Because of the Marcellus shale.

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