4,000 homes in Handsworth faced a night without power

Feb 3 2009 by William Oliphant, Birmingham Mail

MORE than 4,000 homes in Handsworth faced a night without power in sub-zero temperatures last night after a fire damaged an electricity sub station.

Power was lost to houses after a blaze at the Jobcentre Plus office in Soho Road, Handsworth, knocked out the relay station.

More than 300 workers at the centre were sent home while crews from electricity supplier Central Networks isolated electricity to the building and firefighters put out the fire just after 2pm yesterday.

Electricity was restored to most homes within hours of the fire but 276 homes directly fed from the station were out for longer.

Rebecca Middleton, from Central Networks, said: We apologise to those affected. We realise that its cold and snowy weather and our crews worked as hard as possible to bring the power back online.