5,000 homes and businesses suffered a power cut across Walkden on Thursday afternoon after a fire at an electricity substation.
At 3.15pm on Thursday 14 July multiple police and fire crews were scrambled to the scene in the Mountain Street area of the town, near Total Fitness.
Residents reported hearing a loud bang as just schoolchildren were finishing for the day, followed by a power loss and multiple house alarms going off.
Officers closed down Brackley Street and part of Worsley Road North while they investigated.
It’s now clear that the power cut only lasted a few minutes.
As of 4pm officers were removing police tape and getting ready to re-open roads in the area.
Read: 500 homes and businesses hit by Little Hulton power cut this week
GMP Salford West posted in a Facebook statement: “We have a confirmed fault at a power station in Walkden.
“This may have affected your properties, traffic lights as far [south] as Ellenbrook.
“We are aware and assisting until it’s resolved.”
In a statement Electricity North West said: “A fire at our substation in Walkden caused the loss of power to 5,000 customers this afternoon at 3.18pm.
“We automatically restored power to all customers within five minutes and our engineers quickly arrived onsite and are working hard to investigate the cause of the fire.
“If any customers would like any further information they can contact us 24/7 on 0800 195 4141 or follow @ElectricityNW.”
The incident was not related to an emergency services anti-terror exercise, dubbed Triton 2, ongoing in Rochdale and Oldham today.
