Power surge starts fires

And one man is now scared to touch a light switch after his hands, hair and neck were burnt when flames burst out of a electrical box.

Alex Ryan, a barrister from Rodmell, also watched helplessly as his television caught fire.

Around 20 households are counting the costs of a mistake by electrical supplier EDF which left them without power for up to 24 hours.

The accident happened at around 4.30pm on Thursday last week when EDF switched the power back on following a temporary shutdown for routine repairs and maintenance.

Mr Ryan said:'Seven of my trip switches had come down and when I flicked one back on there was an enormous bang and a flash of flame.

'I had superficial burns to my head, hair and right hand.

'The worse thing was the shock, the noise and the flame were spectacular.

'The flames came from a time switch box above the trip switches and that box was devastated.

'Straight after my wife called to me from the sitting room because the television had caught fire.

'It wasn't switched on but there was smoke pouring out of it.'

Mr Ryan said everything inside the house with a transformer, including his computer, kettles and fridge freezer was damaged.

He said contractors working on behalf of EDF had taken the broken appliances and he was waiting to hear whether or not the damage could be repaired.

A spokesman for EDF said: 'Unfortunately, a fault occurred after the network was re-energised on Thursday, affecting 20 customer supplies, which resulted in damage to electrical equipment in some properties and in a small number of cases this caused a fire.

'We sincerely apologise for any distress and inconvenience that our customers may have experienced and we are investigating the cause.'