NEIGHBOURS have spoken of their shock after a fire broke out at an electricity sub-station north of Cottingham.
Firefighters spent hours battling the huge blaze from about 2pm yesterday, as a cloud of black smoke towered over the site.
Six fire engines rushed to the scene as oil used to cool a transformer unit blazed.
East Riding Council leader Councillor Stephen Parnaby lives immediately next to the sub-station site, in Park Lane, where he runs a caravan storage company.
"I was just leaving home for a meeting when the fire started," he said.
"I was driving one way and the first fire engine was coming towards me.
"I decided it was best to keep going because it was fairly obvious there was going to be an exclusion zone set up and we would have been inside it.
"We have lived there for 26 years and there has never been anything like this in all the time we have been there."
Police confirmed nobody was injured and it is not yet known how the fire was started.
Creyke Beck is the region's biggest electricity sub-station and is operated by the National Grid.
Last summer regional power company Northern Power Grid started work on a £13m project to upgrade high-voltage power cables between Creyke Beck and the Hull South sub-station, in Hessle Road.
Keith Bruton, 67, was painting a fence at a house near the sub-station when he heard a "loud bang".
He said: "I looked up and saw flames and the dog started barking.
"I couldn't believe it and rang the owner of the house, who rushed back to see what had happened."
Owner Pat Lovelock, 66, said she was "frightened" when she received the call while visiting family in Woodmansey.
She said: "Because I wasn't there I didn't know how bad it was and how near the house it was.
"I do worry about living so close to the sub-station but we haven't had any problems in the 20 years I've been living here."
Motorists parked up on grass verges to take photographs of the dramatic scenes in Dunswell Road.
Andy Corbett took pictures from the side of the A1079.
He said: "I saw it as soon as I pulled on to the slip road for the A1079.
"It looked big even from that distance."
Traffic was slightly affected by diversions near Badgers Wood and Park Lane and police officers were at the scene to reassure those living nearby and inform motorists.
A spokeswoman for the National Grid said electricity supplies to local homes and businesses were not affected.
• Gallery: Pictures of Creyke Beck electricity sub-station fire near Cottingham
