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Thousands lose power after fire | Thousands lose power after fire |
(20 minutes later) | |
Thousands of people are without electricity in Swansea following a fire in a 33,000 volt transformer at a sub-station. | Thousands of people are without electricity in Swansea following a fire in a 33,000 volt transformer at a sub-station. |
Power company Western Power says the cause of the fire in the Ravenhill area is under investigation. | Power company Western Power says the cause of the fire in the Ravenhill area is under investigation. |
At one point 10,000 homes were without electricity, although that fell later to 3,000, with hopes that power could be restored later on Sunday. | |
One local resident said he had seen a big black ball of smoke and flames. | |
More of the homes were taken off supply at the request of the fire service while they tackled the blaze. | |
An eye-witness, Ed Jackson, who lives about 200 yards from the sub-station, realised there was a problem when he saw his fish tank lights were off. | |
He said he looked out of the window, saw the ball of smoke. | |
He described it as if car tyres were being burnt, then heard a thudding noise, and at first he thought there had been a plane crash. | |
"I went to the front door and looked up the street and I could just see this big ball of flames going up in the air," he said. | |
"So I ran up the road and got up to the traffic lights and at the back of Spar there are two big sub-stations and flames were going up 60 to 70 feet and black smoke was billowing up. Then the fire engines stared coming up the hill. | |
"They got it under control quite quickly and then it just went back up again when the water stopped." | |
Western Power spokesman Phil Davies said the company hoped to be able to restore power on Sunday evening, but it was dependent on the fire service allowing access. |