TIVERTON households endured a night of sparks, fires and darkness after a power surge hit supplies.

Firefighters were called to 10 incidents in Carew Road, Oakfields, and Orkney Mews, with two fires reported, while more than 100 homes were left without power overnight after the incidents, which were caused by a power surge.

Electricity for the homes is provided by Western Power Distribution, who said: “At around 6.45pm, WPD had a fault on an overhead transformer which caused a secondary neutral fault on our network. This fault affected 140 customers.

“Soon after we were able to restore 39 customers but due to the complex nature of the fault, 101 customers remained off supply until the following day to allow our staff to carry out house to house safety checks on all 101 properties.

“The neutral fault caused a rise in voltage which subsequently caused damage to electrical appliances which were plugged in and switched on at the time of the incident. WPD appointed a team of Claims Assessors and Loss Adjuster to assess the damage to electrical items caused as a result of the fault.

“Unfortunately access to all properties was not possible at the time but contact details were left at each of these properties asking the householder to contact us for the safety checks to be completed.”

The first incident was a fire involving a television, which was reported at 7.21pm.

Three appliances were mobilised, whilst a fourth appliance became available from a separate incident within Tiverton and was also mobilised.

At 7.44pm, crews reported that they had attended the small fire in a first floor flat involving a television, power isolated and the television has been removed to open air.

A second fire was reported in the kitchen of a detached bungalow at 8.14pm. The fire service used breathing apparatus, a hose reel, a positive pressure ventilation fan, a thermal image camera and lighting to help extinguish the flames.

Further reports included sparks coming from TVs, sockets, plugs, laptops and sky boxes.

As well as the fire service, it has also been reported that Western Power Distribution and British Red Cross attended the scenes.

Debbie Braiden, support in emergencies coordinator for the Red Cross in Devon and Somerset, said: “Our team of emergency support volunteers was called out by the fire service to support residents of three streets affected by a power surge, which caused a fire and a power outage.”