MORE than 2,000 homes were left without power because of a major blaze at a plastics recycling plant in east Hull, it has emerged.
The houses were without power and Hedon Road was closed for several hours when the fire, which started in an electrical station at Taylor's Environmental and Recycling Service Ltd, engulfed the premises, sending thick, black smoke billowing on Sunday afternoon.
A Northern Powergrid spokesman said: "The first reports of an outage came in at 12.52pm on Sunday. Overhead power cables had been damaged by the fire.
"Engineers worked late into the night to restore power to the vast majority of the 2,262 homes affected."
Northern Powergrid hoped to restore power to the remaining few households last night.
The cause of the blaze has not yet been established.
As previously reported by the Mail, it happened in the middle of a five-hour strike by firefighters protesting at the Government's decision to raise the age they can retire.
Fire chiefs hailed as "magnificent" the efforts of back-up crews – mostly civilians given intensive training to man fire engines during periods of industrial action – but also non-striking firefighters called to the site, in an industrialised area off Century Road.
One unnamed firefighter, with more than 20 years' experience, claimed the inexperience of crews caused delays in getting the fire under control, which triggered complaints from residents and businesses. However, the brigade refuted the claims.
Nick Granger, an area manager at Humberside Fire and Rescue Service, made it clear the blaze received "exactly the same" response as it would have done had experienced fire crews attended.
He said: "To the uninitiated, it can be difficult to understand why we don't just jump in and pour water on the fire."
Mr Granger said crews first sought to make safe gas cannisters used to power forklift trucks, then ensured the electrical station was isolated.
"We quickly established the nucleus of the fire was an 11KV electrical station," he said.
"Water and electricity do not mix," he said. "We would not commit firefighters until we had notification that this facility had been isolated."
Firefighters were still damping down at the scene yesterday lunchtime as the investigation into the cause of the blaze continued.
Helicopter pilot helps firefighters tackle blaze RESIDENTS told how a helicopter was used to provide an aerial view of the blaze for firefighters. Lee Hunter, 43, of Hedon, said: "The police helicopter landed at Eastside, where Hedon Rangers football team play. The pilot hopped out and spoke to a chief firefighter. "I only guess he was telling him where the most intense parts of the fire were." "There was a lot of smoke and the flames were as high as the trees – 20ft or more." Mr Hunter's father-in- law, John Maston, lives in The Limes, a few hundred yards from the scene of the blaze. He said: "The police came and told us that we might have to be evacuated. "Fortunately, the wind was blowing in the opposite direction and didn't reach us. The power was off from about 1pm and didn't come on again until 11pm. It was a bit of an inconvenience, especially when it got dark."
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