A MYSTERY blast in west Belfast at the weekend was the result of a technical fault at an electricity sub-station, NIE have confirmed.
Residents across the city reported hearing a loud bang and seeing a series of bright flashes at about 11.15pm on Friday, while thousands of householders experienced a brief dip in power after the incident at the electricity sub-station on the Glen Road.
“There was nothing sinister involved. It was a piece of equipment that failed in one of our sub stations and that would have caused the flash and could also have caused the dip in power that we have seen,” said Sara McClintock of NIE.
“Several thousands of homes and businesses would have seen a dip in power for a number of seconds on Friday night. Network protection systems operated correctly to ensure that power supplies were not lost.
“Engineers from NIE Networks and SONI, the System Operator Northern Ireland, are investigating the cause.”
Several witnesses said they heard a bang and saw a flash of light between 11pm and midnight, amid reports of electrical equipment at the sub-station “bursting into flames”, before three fire crews attended the scene to tackle the blaze before handing over the site to the NIE engineers.
It is believed that houses located as far away as north Antrim and Bangor in Co Down were affected by the power dip.
One young west Belfast resident took to social media to say she thought that the blue flash outside her window was a meteor.
