Year 11 pupils burning their exercise books on the last day of school inadvertently knocked out the power to 135,000 buildings in Essex, it is claimed.
Buildings were evacuated, traffic lights stopped working and phone signals went down across south Essex after Tuesday’s fire on Hacton Lane, Upminster, spread to power lines across the river Ingrebourne.
The Metropolitan police are investigating a suspected case of arson. No arrests have been made, but detectives in Havering have appealed for information and said they are pursuing suspects.
According to one witness, the chaos was caused by schoolchildren setting light to their books in a ritual to mark the end of term. Georgia Edwards, 18, told the Romford Recorder she saw a group of children running towards her as she walked her brother to the park.
“Fire engines were there and out of nowhere a fire started,” she said. “Kids were running away and told us they saw kids setting fire to their school books as a result of leaving school and never going back. Apparently they were burning planners and stuff. We all just watched as the wind made it worse.”
Edwards posted a picture on Twitter showing several children on bicycles in front of a fire spewing thick, black smoke. There is no suggestion any of the children pictured were involved.
No electric for a week pic.twitter.com/J0a4Af7sl0
— geo (@Gbedwardsx) July 21, 2015
The flames damaged two 30-metre-long power cables on the road bridge across the Ingrebourne, knocking out the power to several nearby areas, the London fire brigade said. Grassland 100 metres from the bridge also burst into flame, the fire brigade said.
In most areas the power cuts lasted for more than half an hour, UK Power Networks said. But that was long enough to provoke a storm on social media, with some tweets describing the situation as like the apocalypse.
Fire at Hacton Park as well as a power cut across Havering! pic.twitter.com/omYmSbMTvf
— ✨MeganO'Shaughnessy✨ (@meganoshan) July 21, 2015
Power cut in Hornchurch😏! If the wife turns zombie, me and my daughter are doing her in!
— Barry Mortimer (@contact400) July 21, 2015
Absolute carnage out there in #Upminster #lakeside #powercut got stuck in car park as barriers wouldn't lift
— Occasional Dance (@Occasionaldance) July 21, 2015
A power cut in Elm Park is like the apocalypse! Alarms going off everywhere, even Tesco came to a stand still. #shitgotreal
— Rose Shalloo (@RoseShalloo) July 21, 2015
A massive power cut because some kids burned books. Fucking Essex for you
— Lutts (@Lutts_) July 21, 2015
Two fire engines, 10 firefighters and officers from Romford and Ilford fire stations attended the grass fire, while a further fire engine and five firefighters and officers from Hornchurch fire station attended the cable fire, the fire brigade said.
Both fires were under control by 7pm. No one was hurt. A fire brigade spokesperson said: “The fire damaged electrical cables which meant a number of homes experienced loss of power for a short period. The cause is under investigation.”
Police are continuing their enquiries into the incident. DC Dennahy, of Havering CID, said: “We believe the fire may have been started due to reckless behaviour, however we continue to keep an open mind.”
A UK Power Networks spokesman said the 135,000 buildings affected by the blaze were dotted around a number of different areas across Essex.
He said: “Following reports of damage to some of our equipment, we received reports of power cuts affecting several areas in Essex at 4.15pm on Tuesday and restored most by 4.47pm. There was a further interruption at about 5.05pm and all supplies were restored again by 5.18pm.”
