Leighton Buzzard mum tells of close call as cable fault causes alleyway explosions

Jade Gutteridge, 32, was walking with her three children up the lane between Nationwide and Peacocks on Thursday (February 11) when they were startled to see the drain exploding twice in the space of around five minutes.

While Jade warned other passers-by to stay away, another couple who had been standing behind her headed to Selections to get help.

Jade said: “It was just so bizarre when it happened. There was a couple behind me, and I turned around and said, ‘Did you just see that?’

“We were walking up towards New Look and the children were behind me faffing about with their new Spiderman umbrellas - normally they run off infront of me.

“Then this drain came up with a ball of fire underneathit and went back down. Then this poof of black smoke came out!”

Jade added: “The first explosion didn’t lift [the lid] too high, but it was enough to see the ball of fire underneath.The second one was a little bit higher with a bigger ball of fire. Two people were walking down but they didn’t hear me shout. They were about 2ft away from it.”

The first explosion happened at around 11.30am, with the emergency services arriving at the scene at around 11.50am.

Jade told the LBO that staff from Selections also helped to close of the alleyway using some bollards which had been left in the street by workmen, while she made a hurried post on Facebook to warn other residents.

She said: “Thank you to the couple behind me who went to get the people from Selections. My kids were saying, ‘It’s scary, it’s scary.’ I’m so lucky that they were behind me - they could have been standing on the drain when the fire happened. I’m so glad that no-one was hurt.”

A Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Service spokeswoman, said: “On February 11 at around 11.45am we attended a small subsurface explosion in Leighton Buzzard, which was caused by a faulty three phase electrical supply surge.

“It was isolated by the UK power network and left in their hands.”

The explosion also meant that some homes were without power that afternoon.

A UK Power Networks spokeswoman explained: “Our engineers turned off power for safety reasons for 499 customers in Leighton Buzzard at 12.04pm last Thursday following an underground cable fault. Sometimes heat can be produced when power cables develop a fault underground, and safety is always our top priority. Power was restored in stages with the final 90 properties back on supply at 1.25pm the same afternoon. We apologise for the inconvenience caused.”