There were dramatic scenes in Ruddington during the early hours of this morning when an electricity sub-station on Old Station Drive caught fire – initially cutting power to 1,961 houses in our village. Flames were visible leaping high into the night sky.
A Nottinghamshire Fire & Rescue crew from West Bridgford was called out at 1.39am today (Tuesday 7th April) to tackle the blaze – with local resident Wayne Swift capturing the moment they arrived (above) to find the sub-station engulfed in flames. Western Power Distribution (WPD) also attended the scene to assist the fire fighters. However it’s reported officers mainly had to let the fire burn itself out because water could not be used safely due to the high voltage supply.
Power was restored to most affected homes in Ruddington within an hour. However, dozens of properties which were directly supplied by the burnt out sub-station had to wait until around 10am before they could be reconnected to the grid by emergency means. It’s believed all homes should now be back on.
Resident Sian Louise confirms: “Old Station Drive back up and running. Huge thanks to the guys working at restoring our power.”
It seems the fire wasn’t the only thing happening overnight, as we’ve had reports of garden sheds and outbuildings in Ruddington being broken into – with the criminals possibly taking advantage of the power outage. One of these was on Camelot Crescent where valuable items were taken from a summerhouse/office last night.
Will Mason tells us: “Whilst we are all working from home I suspect burglars are targeting easy pickings as they know expensive items like work laptops will be at home. It’s very sad, particularly in these difficult times.”
Meantime WPD is investigating how this morning’s blaze started. Early reports suggest that it was an adjacent tree on fire which spread to the sub-station. (Update below.)
UPDATE TUE 7th APRIL 2.30pm
WPD says: “The sub-station fire was reported to us at 2.05am by the fire service. 1,961 customers lost power as a result. We restored supplies to 765 in 3 mins, 1,123 in an hour and all by 10am. The cause is not known. We have carried out emergency repairs and will start work to rebuild the sub-station asap. This essential work will be carried out in accordance with the strict social distancing and hygiene measures currently in place for all WPD staff.”
{Our thanks to Wayne Swift for the photographs}
