Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
NIE man burned after a ‘loud bang’ at fold
Probe over incident at substation
A NIE Networks employee is understood to have suffered burns in a terrifying incident yesterday.
Emergency services rushed to the scene at Camberwell Court fold on the Limestone Road in North Belfast after reports of a loud bang and smoke.
A man was taken by ambulance to the Royal Victoria Hospital after the incident around 8.50am.
A supervisor at the fold, who was arriving at work, said: “I saw the emergency services and I thought there might have been a fire.
“When I went out the man who had injured himself was in shock... sitting outside Camberwell with his face all black.
“You could see the whole front of his chest was raw and red where he had burnt himself.
“I was shouting over to one of his bosses that the electric had gone down and... the poor man wanted to go back in and check if everything was OK for us.
“A few of them that were standing around were just in deep shock, obviously his colleagues. You could see they were shaking.
“We have one of those big grey boxes with cables and all and they were working at that.”
The woman, whose sister lives next to the fold, said: “She told me she heard this loud bang and when she went out there was a puff of smoke and the man screamed for water.
“She came in and asked her husband to
BELFAST YESTERDAY
turn on the hose – he went out and handed him the hose and he doused himself down. My sister had said she had seen sort of skin lifting from his arms. “The next thing all these emergency services came down.
“I know the fella who was injured is in hospital. Apparently he has burned all his arms and his chest. They say the thing that saved his face was the visor. “All the things that he went through and he was more worried about the electric going off in here – and the pensioners. God love him.”
Sinn Fein councillor Conor Maskey added: “I am really hoping the NIE worker isn’t extremely badly hurt. My thoughts are with him and his co-workers and family at this time. “I want to praise the swift action of Newington Housing Association, who run the Camberwell fold, in getting them operational with a generator so quickly and also Holy Family Youth Club for providing additional assistance to residents.” A spokesperson for NIE Networks confirmed there had been an incident at a substation which is being investigated.
They said it resulted in a loss of electricity supply to some customers.
A Health and Safety Executive spokesperson added: “HSENI is aware of an incident involving an NIE Networks employee and is currently making inquiries.”