AROUND 100 properties were left without electricity for over five hours following a fire in Blandford.

Crews of firefighters were called to Salisbury Street just before 9am on Wednesday morning following the incident in an underground electrical junction box outside Nationwide.

Fire crews from Blandford attended, and as a precaution set up a safety cordon to protect members of the public.

Staff from SSE and the fire service were able to leave the scene by 2.30pm.

Samantha O’Connor, a spokesperson for Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks, said: “We received reports of smoke coming from one of our underground junction boxes in Salisbury Street on Wednesday morning.

“Our engineers attended site and isolated the supplies to approx. 100 properties to enable repairs to be carried out safely.

“We would like to apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused.”