A FIRE erupted on the pavement of a residential street in Feltham after an underground cable ignited and left residents in the dark for hours.
Homeowners on Guildford Avenue, where a mains cable is believed to have set alight causing a manhole cover to erupt and bring flames to the surface, also left residents on the street without electricity for around 12 hours.
The incident happened on Wednesday, November 7, afternoon, and the electricity cut affected residents living on nearby Craven Avenue too.
Mike Cogan, of nearby Southcote Avenue, Feltham, who sent in the picture, said: "My wife was in the garden and thought someone's house had gone up.
''We ran up to the top of the road and saw the flames coming up. There was a PCSO on the scene keeping people back.
"The mains cable had a fault in it and caught light underground and the flames came up and the manhole cover blew up. The flames were quite strong and put out electricity on Guildford Avenue and Craven Avenue.
''Power was not back on until 2am today (Thursday). The fire was burning for at least 15 minutes."
Feltham Fire Brigade confirmed they were called at 1.15pm to an electrical junction box underneath the pavement. One fire engine with four firefighters attended.
It is believed workmen from the Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) were at the site today.
Southern Electric Power Distribution, a division of SSE, confirmed a small fire in the underground link box on Guildford Avenue on Wednesday around 1.30pm.
A spokesperson added: "The fire was confined to the link box and engineers were on site quickly to ensure it was safe and carry out repairs. Around 70 customers were affected at addresses in Hanover Avenue, Craven Avenue and Guildford Avenue.
"We managed to restore one third of those affected on the same day by 3.20pm. We had to carry out extensive repairs but all supplies were restored at midnight. We would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused and thank the community for their patience whilst we carried out the repairs."
