New year started with a bang as fire hit power lines
THE new year really did start with a bang in 2004 when an electrical fire caused chaos in Burton.
Businesses lost a day’s trade after an electricity cable exploded and caused flames to shoot up through the pavement.
Firefighters were called to the blaze outside Burton Constitutional Club in High Street at 11.30am on January 8, 2004.
Neighbouring businesses including Yates’s Wine Lodge, The Lord Burton and Vadis Insurance Company were evacuated while firefighters attempted to bring the flames under control with a special powder used to extinguish electrical fires.
Andy Davis, manager of Vadis Insurance, situated next door to the Constitutional Club, said: “There was no damage to the property but we have had problems with the electrics over the years and it always seems to be when we’ve had rainfall.
“All the electricity went off, we heard a bang and saw the reflection of the flames in the post office window across the road, so we evacuated the building.”
Acting manager of Yates’s Wine Lodge in High Street, Michael Roe, said the bar had also experienced problems with its electrical supply in the past. He said: “We had flickering lights and a disrupted electricity supply a year ago.
“We had to close all day yesterday but are open today. All the lights went off so I went next door to see if they had electricity, looked up the street and saw the fire, so I evacuated the pub.”
Station officer at Burton Fire Station, Mark Williams, said it was a ‘freak’ accident and it was lucky a pedestrian had not walked by at the time of the explosion.
He said the fire had involved an electrical cable under the pavement and it had caused flames to blast through the paving slabs