Portsmouth power cut due to fire

Many households in Portsmouth were left without any electricity following a substation fire which broke out at the weekend.

The blaze at the premises of Southern Electric in Warblington Street, Old Portsmouth in the early hours of Saturday morning caused around 47,000 customers to go without power for most of the day.

Fire crews did bring the fire under control later that morning. However, engineers were delayed from carrying out any repairs to the substation and cleaning the ash, due to the presence of hazardous chemicals.

In a statement released at the time, the power supplier said:

“We are asking customers who have power to use electricity sparingly because the network is a lot weaker than normal.

“This will maintain power supplies to people who have still got it and help restore power to those who have not.”

A spokesperson for Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service also added:

“The incident was also declared a hazardous material incident (Hazmat) due to the presence of a gas known as sulphur hexafluoride, which is used in the building.”

The situation primarily affected customers in the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard and Guildhall Walk areas, although mobile generators were in operation throughout the city following the blaze.