Telegraph pole explodes in Telford street

A telegraph pole exploded sending sparks shooting into a Telford street, before collapsing into the front garden of a house.

Six homes were evacuated because of the danger from the live wires brought down with the collapsed pole and fears the fire from the explosion could spread to properties in St Georges Road, Donnington.

A 400-metre cordon was set up around the telegraph pole by firefighters called to the incident at 8.20pm yesterday.

A number of homes were left without power after the incident.

Eyewitness Keith Evans, who captured this dramatic photograph of the incident on his mobile phone, said: "I was just looking through the window and there was a large bang and the telegraph pole burst into flames right at the top."

Mr Evans, who lives in flats in nearby St Matthew's Road, said: "It was like a firework display. Everybody was just standing there not knowing what to do. It lasted for about an hour."

He said he had no power from about 9.30pm until about 3am and others were affected.

Peter Hawkins, watch manager at Telford Central Fire Station, said: "We had the call and one appliance attended initially. The pole was fully involved in fire and was in danger of collapse.

"Another pump was requested. The 11kw pole did collapse and bring the live wires down. It probably collapsed within 30 minutes onto the front of a neighbouring property.

"We just cordoned off the area and made it safe and made sure once it collapsed it didn't involve other properties in fire."

Mr Hawkins said: "The other poles stayed in situe.

"The cables were brought down. There was a danger because they were still live."

Electrical engineers were in the process of isolating the power from the telegraph pole when it collapsed.