HUNDREDS of properties were left without power after an electricity pole caught fire and threatened to collapse.

Firefighters were called to the incident at Scout Road at just after 10am yesterday morning.

Power was removed from 647 properties for safety reasons.

Crew manager Pete Wilmot said it was an ‘unusual’ fire to deal with.

He said: “It was a small fire at the top of the pole carrying electricity to local houses and farms. Something had shorted and caused a fire of the pole itself. It was slowly burning away and we thought it was going to collapse but it burnt itself out about three-quarters of the way down the pole.”

Mr Wilmot added that the crew stayed at the scene until about 3pm to keep people away from the popular walking area while it was made safe.

Electricity North West said power was restored by 11.30am.Meanwhile businesses in Higher Bridge Street were trading again after being hit by a power cut yesterday.

The outage, which happened at about 1.30pm, affected premises including BCC Citroen, Mercedes Benz, Smart Hand Car Wash and Cromptons Convenience Store.They reported power returning either Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning. Car wash boss Mominkhan Sherzad said he lost ‘hundreds of pounds’ due to the outage.