Tree felled across high voltage line caused power cut in town

The warning follows an incident on Sunday, May 17 where an individual working in the vicinity of the Coleraine Council offices felled a tree across a high voltage overhead power line.

Over 700 homes and businesses in the area lost electricity supplies and NIE emergency crews responded immediately, restoring power to all customers within 40 minutes.

Repairs to replace the broken overhead power lines were completed that evening.

Christine Baker, NIE Customer Relations Manager for the Coleraine area, appealed to anyone working in the vicinity of overhead lines to plan their work carefully.

She says: “Luckily in this incident no-one was injured. We would encourage anyone cutting trees near electricity equipment to take extra caution and to be aware of overhead lines and stay wires at all times. Our safety message is clear look up, look out and stay away from overhead lines.”