Hundreds of homes in Bath suffered two power cuts in less than 12 hours due to an underground electrical fault.
At 11am yesterday (Saturday) 688 homes in and around Weston Village lost power for about 10 minutes as Western Power Distribution isolated the cabling fault and arranged an alternative supply source.
Workers worked on the fault near the sub-station in Weston High Street for several hours but the same cabling fault caused the circuit to trip again at 8.25pm. This left 409 of the homes affected earlier without power until 8.51pm.
Shortly after 9pm Western Power Distribution received a phone call from a concerned customer who said she had heard an explosion and could see smoke near the sub-station.
Firefighters from Avon Fire and Rescue Service were called out to reports of a small fire in underground electrical cabling on the High Street in Weston Village. They said the fire was out on arrival and they left it in the hands of Western Power Distribution.
The call-out happened during a national firefighters' strike over pensions but contingency arrangements were in place and firefighters who are not part of the Fire Brigades Union attended.
A Western Power Distribution spokesman said workers thought the earlier circuit fault had re-sealed itself but it then reconfigured and became a permanent fault.
He said: "It's not unusual for a cabling fault to generate some smouldering, it would have been more smoke than flames. When a circuit trips, we re-direct people's power and the faulty section has now been isolated."
Residents on Twitter made comments such as 'Guess what? Power cut,' 'power back on then off again,' 'smoke and flames in Crown Hill,' 'Manhole lifted' and 'hope power is restored soon.'
The Western Power Distribution spokesman apologised to customers for the inconvenience and said workers would return to the scene to work on the fault on Tuesday.
It comes only about a month after another similar fire caused by an underground electrical fault. A small explosion from underneath the pavement in Avon Street in Bath resulted in a fire outside a city centre shop. The explosion outside Sally hair and beauty shop in the corner with James Street West happened at about 8.20am on April 1 and no-one was injured.
At 11am yesterday (Saturday) 688 homes in and around Weston Village lost power for about 10 minutes as Western Power Distribution isolated the cabling fault and arranged an alternative supply source.
Workers worked on the fault near the sub-station in Weston High Street for several hours but the same cabling fault caused the circuit to trip again at 8.25pm. This left 409 of the homes affected earlier without power until 8.51pm.
Shortly after 9pm Western Power Distribution received a phone call from a concerned customer who said she had heard an explosion and could see smoke near the sub-station.
Firefighters from Avon Fire and Rescue Service were called out to reports of a small fire in underground electrical cabling on the High Street in Weston Village. They said the fire was out on arrival and they left it in the hands of Western Power Distribution.
The call-out happened during a national firefighters' strike over pensions but contingency arrangements were in place and firefighters who are not part of the Fire Brigades Union attended.
A Western Power Distribution spokesman said workers thought the earlier circuit fault had re-sealed itself but it then reconfigured and became a permanent fault.
He said: "It's not unusual for a cabling fault to generate some smouldering, it would have been more smoke than flames. When a circuit trips, we re-direct people's power and the faulty section has now been isolated."
Residents on Twitter made comments such as 'Guess what? Power cut,' 'power back on then off again,' 'smoke and flames in Crown Hill,' 'Manhole lifted' and 'hope power is restored soon.'
The Western Power Distribution spokesman apologised to customers for the inconvenience and said workers would return to the scene to work on the fault on Tuesday.
It comes only about a month after another similar fire caused by an underground electrical fault. A small explosion from underneath the pavement in Avon Street in Bath resulted in a fire outside a city centre shop. The explosion outside Sally hair and beauty shop in the corner with James Street West happened at about 8.20am on April 1 and no-one was injured.
