Clacton: Garden blast sparks bomb fear in street

Betty and George Pullen of St John's Road, Clacton, only moved into their bungalow eight weeks ago and could not believe what was happening.

Betty and George Pullen in their garden in St John's Road, Clacton

The explosion happened just days after electricity company 24Seven had dug a hole in their garden to carry out some work on the cables, which run up their driveway, under the garage and into their garden.

Mrs Pullen said: "My husband was in the kitchen area. I was at the side of the house.

"The only way I can describe it is two big bangs and a ball of flames shot up in the air. It was enormous."

She said she could not see her husband because of all the smoke.

"We ran towards each other. It was instinct to swing away and I hurt my neck and shoulder," Mrs Pullen said.

She said some people living nearby even thought it was a bomb going off.

"It was scary," Mrs Pullen said.

One of their neighbours called the fire service while Mr Pullen phoned the police, at 1.30pm on Saturday.

She said the previous owners had created a cottage garden but now some trees were lost, a number of plants were damaged and there is dirt and mud everywhere.

"We are still shaken. Something bad happened and they are putting it right but we need something from them to say we can sit in our garden safely. It does make you wonder what you are living on top of." Mrs Pullen said.

Now the couple can only use a small section of their 80ft garden because workmen have dug a large L-shaped trench to try to fix the problem.

A spokeswoman for 24Seven said an underground high-voltage cable developed a fault on May 18 and tests were carried out on the network from the local substation.

"The faulty section was isolated and repairs were carried out Friday. Unfortunately, the cable failed again on Saturday, which required extra excavation work.

She said 24Seven had apologised for any inconvenience caused

Published Wednesday, May 28, 2003

Brought to you by the Evening Gazette