Residents of a quiet road in Thornhill said they thought they could hear fireworks as a blaze engulfed an electricity cable outside people’s homes.

The fire saw one of the overhead cables collapse and set a wall alight in one household’s front garden as firefighters tackled the blaze in Cowper Road on Friday, December 27.

Homes were left without power shortly after 6pm on Friday evening until the early hours of the morning, as the road was plunged into darkness from the fire.

The blaze is thought to have resulted following a technical issue with one of the electricity cables.

Brian Cunningham-Burt said the ordeal had been a “scary” experience as he witnessed the front wall in front of his home catch fire.

He said: “It was quite scary, I suppose it was just after 6pm and there was some sort of fault with one of the overhead cables and the wire that's directly above our front wall came down and set the wall on fire.

"We thought it was fireworks at first, nobody told us until the fire brigade got here.

“When you were outside you could hear the wires crackling above you and it was chaos to look at.

“I'm so glad the fire brigade came as quickly as they did and were able to deal with the blaze. We were without power until gone midnight and even now we haven't got any internet.

“So, it was a quiet evening as we couldn't do too much. The road was cordoned off and I've spent most of Saturday cleaning the wall as there was a bit of fire damage and foam everywhere.”

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Gary Roberts lives just a few yards from where the fire took hold, and he said his home was also without power on Friday night.

He said: “We couldn't believe it. We were without power from around 6.30pm until 11.40pm.

“We couldn't do much but at least we had our phones. It was like watching fireworks go off.

“The electricity cable seemed to catch fire and then it was like a series of fireworks going off along the line.”

In a statement, a spokesperson for Hampshire and Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Service said: “Crews from Hightown and St Mary’s were called to reports of an electricity pole on fire in Cowper Road, Southampton at around 6pm on December 27.

“The fire was extinguished and a cordon put in place and the incident handed over to SSE.”