Fire destroys Exeter substation leaving hundreds of homes without power
An electrical substation in the centre of Exeter has been destroyed by fire, leaving hundreds of properties without power.
Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service were called to the scene, near Fore Street, shortly after 6am on Sunday.
About 25 people were evacuated from nearby properties as crews worked to bring the fire under control.
The external substation was destroyed and four nearby properties were damaged by fire and heat, the service said.
The National Grid said 281 homes remained without power as of 10am on Sunday morning, while supply had been restored to 615 properties.
Power is not expected to be fully restored until 9pm. The outage was caused by 'third-party damage' to the network, the provider said.
Riverside Leisure Centre has been set up as a respite centre for displaced residents.
In a post on X, the fire service said the blaze is 'causing lots of smoke in the area'. It added: 'Please keep your windows and doors closed if you live in the area.
'You may also experience some disruption to your electricity supply.'
Six fire engines were initially sent to the incident along with police and the ambulance service. Two crews remain at the scene. The cause of the fire has not yet been confirmed.
It comes after a substation serving Heathrow Airport caught fire in March, leaving about 270,000 passengers stranded across the globe.
More than 1,300 flights to and from the airport were cancelled or turned away after it was forced to close.
Investigators later discovered that the blaze began in a 57-year-old electricity transformer at the North Hyde substation. It then spread to a second transformer next to it before a third, newer transformer then overloaded and cut out.
In April, another power outage took place in Maida Vale after a huge fire erupted at an electrical substation because of a fault.
One hundred firefighters were deployed to tackle the blaze, with another 100 nearby residents forced to evacuate and the London Fire Brigade (LFB) declaring a major incident.
The cause of the blaze was a fault on a piece of equipment in a UK Power Network substation, the distribution network operator said.
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