Explosion closes town centre street
AN underground explosion in Accrington town centre caused a road to be evacuated and left dozens of properties without power for several hours.
Abbey Street was closed and evacuated from Blackburn Road to Eastgate shortly after 2.30pm on Monday after an electricity sub station overheated and caused a manhole cover to blow open outside J Archer Carpets.
Electricity was cut to around 50 homes as a precaution, with customers eventually being restored shortly after midnight.
Witnesses spoke of hearing a loud explosion.
Zara Boyle, from the Boardwalk cafe, said: “The first time I noticed anything was when my floor started shaking, I immediately shut off the gas and electricity and came out to have a look.
“The manhole cover had exploded and there was a big plume of smoke coming out of it and the pavement had been broken.
“When we came outside a man and his little girl were stood close to where it had happened, the girl must have only been about four years old. They weren’t injured but they very easily could have been, it could have been a lot worse.
Andrew Jackson, landlord of Arden Inn, said: “I heard a bang and saw a cloud of smoke. I thought it was a car crash at first.
“I came outside and the manhole cover had exploded. It went a good few inches off the ground. The fire service came and we got told to evacuate and close the doors.”
Andrew Hall, who owns Divine Coffee Shop with wife Helen, said the street was “eerily quiet” following the explosion.
Hyndburn fire crews were called out at around 2.40pm on Monday, June 6.
Watch manager Garry Drinkwater said: “There were police that were driving past at the time and as they came around the corner there was a large explosion and the manhole cover was lifted off the ground and shattered the bricks and tarmac around it.”
WM Drinkwater added that a combustible gas indicator showed “a very high concentration of carbon dioxide” over 50 times the normal levels inside the manhole.
He added: “We evacuated both sides of the street and placed a 50 metre cordon around the scene.
“We allowed the gas to disperse naturally. The cause of the carbon dioxide was the overheating of an electricity sub station.”
Electricity North West said engineers worked through the night and restored power to all customers at 12.30am.
A spokesperson added: “Safety is our number one priority and we take our responsibilities very seriously. Incidents like this are very rare, although the issue of underground faults is one that affects power networks around the world. We do all we can to maintain our underground network.”