Residents left without electricity after 'eerie' underground fire in Bradford (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Residents left without electricity after 'eerie' underground fire in Bradford

9:19am Monday 3rd December 2012 in News By Hannah Postles, T&A Reporter

Part of a Bradford street was left without power after an electrical cable fault left “eerie” smoke billowing from a Bradford pavement early today.

Firefiighters from Bradford fire station were called to Upper Rushton Road, Fagley, at around 1.30am, where they found flickering streetlights and smoke coming up from the ground because of damage to an underground cable.

Engineers from Northern Power Grid were called to the scene to isolate the area, leaving part of the street without power until the fault had been fixed.

Crew commander Chris Hargreaves said: “It was quite eerie, with the street lights flickering and the smoke coming up from the pavement. We were called to reports of a fire, so we were expecting to see a car or a bin - not smoke from the ground!

“There was damage to a power cable and rain water had seeped through, causing it to spark.

“We stayed until Northern Power Grid isolated the cable, which left around a third of the street without power. Their engineers were working through the night to get the power fully restored.”