FORTY homes were left without electricity for up to 18 hours after a power failure.

Residents in Pilmuir Road, Highercroft, Black-burn, lost the power at 6pm on Friday and in some cases it did not come back on until midday on Saturday.

Today an angry householder called for compensation after saying she had been left out of pocket following the ruining of frozen food in freezers.

And the woman also said she had been left devastated at the death of her tropical fish caused by the power cut.

A spokesman for United Utilities said the fault was caused by an underground cable and that such problems were usually down to wear and tear.

Mother-of-two Linda Threl-fall, 37, of Pilmuir Road, Blackburn, demanded a more detailed explanation from United Utilities after 12 of her 15 tropical fish perished. She said the oxygen pump on the tank stopped working when the power went out.

Mrs Threlfall added: "I can't replace them, we have watched them grow and change colour.

"My 14-year-old son Matthew was heartbroken to see them dead, I didn't stop crying all day.

"Some people might turn round and say they are just fish, but they were our pets.

"I am so angry. I want compensation, I want re-imbursing for my fish."

She said that she had also lost about £100 worth of food from the freezer.

A spokesman for United Utilities said that supplies began to be restored on Saturday morning, and by noon all of the 40 properties affected were back on.

He added: "We apologise to all the families for the loss of power supply overnight on Friday and are very sorry to hear that some customers lost tropical fish.

"We appreciate this must be very upsetting. Unfortunately, due to the nature of electricity, faults do occur without warning..

"Iin this case our engineers worked through the night to restore supplies to customers more quickly than had been anticipated the next day."