THOUSANDS of residents and workers in Basingstoke were hit by a power cut on the afternoon of Wednesday, April 27.

A possible lightning strike to electricity cables meant 17,000 homes and businesses across the town were without power for 15 minutes from about 2.50pm.

Fire engines were called to the town centre as fumes billowed from emergency generators that kicked into action, including one under the Barclays Mercantile business Finance building, in Churchill Way.

Seven fire appliances from Basingstoke, Overton and Tadley went to the building - the scene of a major blaze in 1991 - but there was no fire.

Jerry Leonard, station commander at Basingstoke fire station, said: "As a result of the major power failure in the town centre, generators came into operation and maintained power in Festival Place and the centre of town.

"The diesel fumes and smoky exhaust from the generators were giving the impression of fire. Some of the shops were evacuated for a short space of time. We were called because the power went off and people saw smoke, although there was no fire."

Shops in Festival Place had to evacuate customers for about 10 minutes until power was restored.

Amelia Rainey, a shop assistant at Mk One in Festival Place, said: "We had to get everybody out of the shop for about 10 minutes. The whole of this side of the shopping centre was affected."

And Sarah Ince, manager at Pumpkin Patch, also in Festival Place, said: "We had an announcement about technical difficulties, and were told it was a power cut across Basingstoke. We had to close the shop, but not for long."

Linda Young, spokeswoman for Southern Electric, said: "It was quite a big fault, with 17,000 customers affected. We do not know what caused it yet, but it could have been a lightning strike."

First published: Friday, April 29, 2005