Fireball in Pimlico: footage shows passer-by's narrow escape as pavement explodes, sending flames shooting into sky

 
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This is the moment a pavement exploded on a busy street in central London, sending a huge fireball shooting into the air.

The blast, believed to have been caused by a faulty power cable carrying 11,000 volts, shook nearby buildings and left a crater in the middle of the street.

Today the Health and Safety Executive said its inspectors were carrying out urgent inquiries into the incident which occurred yesterday morning on Pimlico Road in Belgravia.

Witnesses described hearing three explosions, the most dramatic was the second blast which saw flames measuring at least 10ft high erupting into the sky.

Louis Aldred, 29, sales manager at Arthur Brett furniture opposite the site of the blast, said: “We heard this huge bang and there was black smoke everywhere.

“Then came the second, which was like a volcano erupting from underneath the pavement, the flame was about ten feet high, it was very scary.”

In the footage, captured by local resident Charlie Brook, a man talking on his phone next to the site of the explosion can be seen running from the scene as smoke billows upwards.

Ms Brook said: “There were three explosions. I went to the window and started filming after I heard the first. I didn’t know what it was. When I saw the second explosion I was frightened. I thought it was going to travel up the road and get worse. I’m just glad no one was killed or hurt.”

Following the blasts around 10:30am yesterday, police arrived and sealed off the area while inspectors from the National Grid investigated.

Local resident Barrie Segal, 66, said: “I heard a terrific bang, the whole building shook.

“It was followed about 20 seconds later by another bang.

“When I got downstairs I found the pictures on the sideboard had fallen off.

“I looked out of the window and the police had cordoned off both sides of the road and there was a hole in the pavement.”

Today, there was still a smell of charred plastic and metal in the crater and the cabling appeared badly scorched.

A National Grid spokesman said: “We were called at 10.41am. However, we have checked our assets in the area and they are all fine. It appears to be a UK Power Networks cable that has blown.”

A spokeswoman for UK Power Networks, which owns and maintains the electrical cabling supplying London’s power, said: “At 10.25am yesterday a fault on our underground electricity network in Pimlico Road interrupted power supplies to 1,867 customers.

“UK Power Networks engineers rerouted supplies to 861 customers within ten minutes and all supplies were reconnected by 1.55pm.

“Safety is our top priority and the cause of this incident is being investigated.

“We apologise to customers for the inconvenience caused by the power cut and our staff restored all supplies as quickly as was safely possible.”

The previous year Colin Wingate, 75, was left in a wheelchair for nearly three months after a blast blew out a manhole cover.

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