Drivers on the M25 faced disruption near Orpington on Friday evening after a vehicle fire led to traffic being held on the clockwise carriageway between Junction 4 and Junction 5.
The incident was first reported at around 4.20pm on Friday 9 October. Queues built on the approach from the Orpington area towards the M26 junction while the hold remained in place, and motorists travelling clockwise through this part of the orbital route encountered slow and uncertain journeys.
What has been confirmed so far
What is confirmed is limited and specific. A vehicle fire was reported on the M25 clockwise. Traffic was temporarily held across the affected stretch between J4 at Orpington and J5 for the M26. Queuing traffic formed on the approach, with disruption affecting drivers heading from Orpington towards the M26.
Details that are often expected in motorway incidents have not been confirmed in the reporting so far. No vehicle type has been specified. No injuries have been confirmed, and there is no confirmed information about attendance by fire, police or ambulance crews. No diversion route has been published, no delay estimate or tailback length has been given, and no reopening time or clearance expectation has been stated. For that reason this report does not repeat those points as fact, and readers should treat social media claims about closures or casualties with caution until they are verified.
Live updates
This is a developing story. Follow the live updates below for the latest confirmed changes as they are published, with times shown as they appear in the feed.
What drivers should do
If you are approaching the area, allow extra time and check conditions before you join the M25. Drivers already on the clockwise route between Orpington and the M26 should expect stop-start conditions until the hold is lifted, and should be ready for queues to extend back from the incident. If your journey is not urgent, consider delaying it or discussing an alternative with your sat-nav and local road information rather than relying on a single suggested shortcut, because surrounding routes around Bromley and the Kent border can become busy quickly when orbital traffic looks for a way around.
Do not use the hard shoulder unless directed to do so, keep a safe gap in slow traffic, and avoid looking at screens while moving. If you are caught in the queues, stay with your vehicle unless you are told otherwise, keep fuel and charge in mind for a longer wait, and let traffic officers and live traffic information guide any decision to leave the motorway. No official diversion has been published in the reporting so far, so follow signs on the ground rather than informal posts.
Similar disruption has affected other parts of the orbital route before, including a clockwise hold near Heathrow, while planned work elsewhere on the network is listed in our guide to M25 weekend closures affecting the M3, M23 and M40 links. Kent drivers in particular will also want to note the separate A2 overnight closures in Kent planned for the weekend.
Why this stretch matters
Junction 4 serves Orpington and the Bromley side of south-east London, while Junction 5 provides the link towards the M26 for traffic heading deeper into Kent. That makes the short clockwise section between them a pinch point for several flows at once: local traffic joining for a few miles, longer-distance orbital traffic crossing the south side of London, and drivers switching between the M25 and M26. When a hold is needed here, queues can build quickly because there are few immediate alternatives on the motorway itself, and traffic that does leave tends to concentrate on the same nearby A-roads.
The M25 as a whole carries a mix of commuting, airport, freight and cross-country traffic, so an incident on a Friday afternoon can affect journeys well beyond the immediate junction. The first-report time of around 4.20pm placed this incident at the start of the evening peak, when the south-eastern quadrant is already busy with traffic heading towards the Dartford Crossing in one direction and towards Surrey and the M26 split in the other. Even without a published delay figure, the combination of a full hold and building queues is enough to advise caution for anyone planning to use this stretch this evening.
We will continue to update the live feed above as more confirmed information becomes available. If you are travelling, check live traffic before setting off, allow extra time, and avoid the clockwise J4 to J5 section if you can do so safely on signed routes. If you have verified information from the scene that helps other drivers, you can share it with the newsroom through our usual contact channels, but please do not stop on the motorway to take photographs.
