Wick couple's power surge blast shock
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A HALLWAY explosion sparked by a power surge in Wick was so strong one local man believed fireworks had been set off in his home.
Alice Chalmers and her husband, Robert, were among 200 householders who suffered as a result of the incident which happened last Thursday night.
Tens of thousands of pounds worth of damage was caused to electronic appliances plugged in at the time and engineers have spent the week carrying out repairs.
Scottish Hydro staff had been working on an underground cable fault shortly before the incident. When they switched the power back on, a transformer failed and caused the surge.
Mrs Chalmers, of Brown Place, said its force was so great her mains box exploded from her wall and the wallpaper was burnt. Her heating system also malfunctioned.
“My husband was inside the house at the time when the power surge struck. When the box exploded, he got a big shock as he thought fireworks had gone off inside the house,” she told the Caithness Courier.
“The substation is next door to our house where they were working. There hasn’t been a lot of damage in the house apart from the wall, but we are awaiting repairs to the microwave, radio, DVD player and computer screen.
“The central heating system has also had to be replaced after the power surge broke it. We didn’t realise how much we needed the central heating as it was freezing on Thursday night.”
Properties in Argyle Square, Macrae Street, Brown Place and Upper Dunbar Street were all affected as the high voltage passed into residents’ homes.
Locals lost power and a number of boilers and central heating systems also broke down.
Sharon Swanson, of Argyle Square, was another resident affected. “In my house, I currently have no washing machine or Sky box as the power surge damaged these – although I think we got away with it lightly, as I know other homes which came off much worse,” she said.
“One of my neighbours had only just bought a wide-screen television, but now it is gone as a result of the surge.”
Katherine Bunch, of Brown Place, had just returned from holiday when she found out her washing machine had broken down due to the surge.
“We arrived back from Turkey after the incident had happened but we have found that it has caused damage to our washing machine as I can’t get the programmes to work.
“We first found out from our daughter-in-law who said that she had been advised to switch off all of the appliances in the house.
“That was the only appliance which was affected with us, but I know it has caused a lot more damage to other homes.”
Scottish Hydro has hired repair company Haste to visit each home affected to assess the damage.
A spokeswoman revealed: “Initially engineers were attending to an underground cable fault. When engineers were trying to restore power to the cable supply, one of the transformers failed.
“This caused high voltage to go through the network which is a rare occurrence. Haste is attempting to repair or replace any appliance which was damaged as a result of the power surge. Engineers have been attending to customers since Saturday and will continue until everyone has been attended to.
“We would like to apologise to our customers for any inconvenience, but we will make sure anything damaged will be repaired or replaced.”
