RESIDENTS of a North-East village are counting the cost after dozens of electric appliances blew out following a power surge that left nearly 200 homes without electricity.

Villagers described how smoke billowed out of television sets, light bulbs popped and boilers failed, after the fault at an electric sub-station in Lanchester, County Durham on at 10.35am on Saturday morning.

Shortly after the surge fire fighters were called to deal with a fire caused by a blown out computer in Alderside Crescent.

Northern Powergrid sent dozens of workers to the village to deal with the fault affecting 192 homes.

Residents were advised not to use any appliances until they had been checked over by an electrician.

County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Service attended a fire involving a computer in Alderside Crescent.

Station manager Mick Clark of Darlington Fire and Rescue Service said the source was a computer in the front first-floor bedroom of a semi-detached house.

He said: “The householder did the right thing and after discovering the fire, closed the door to the bedroom, vacated the property and called 999 to ask for the fire service.”

Nicola Newton, of Mount Park Drive, said: “We lost a fridge freezer, a dishwasher and washing machine that were plugged in. They all popped.”

Barbara White, of Alderside Crescent, said: “I have lost seven appliances. We have a Sony surround sound, digital radio and dehumidifier away to be checked.”

Linda Boyd said: “My son was at home when smoke came belching out the back of the television.”

A Northern Powergrid, the company responsible for the region’s power network, confirmed that at around 10.35am on Saturday morning a fault at one of its sub-stations caused a power cut for around 192 homes in the Lanchester area and led to damage to some customers’ electrical equipment in their homes.

A spokesman said: “Our first priority is the welfare of our customers and safely restoring their power.

“Since Saturday we have had teams of our engineers, contractors, customer support advisors and our customer support vehicle in the community helping local people.

“By 1.35pm on Sunday we had carried out repairs so our network was able to deliver power to people’s homes and we had started carrying out safety inspections for all local people affected to ensure their homes could safely receive power from our network. All customers now have their power back on.”

She added: “Situations like this are rare and we are currently investigating to establish what happened.

“In the meantime our teams, who have worked all weekend to carry out repairs to essential appliances, will continue to work with customers until this is complete.

“We have visited all of the affected homes prioritising repairing heating systems wherever we can or providing alternative heating arrangements, before moving on to repairing cooking facilities, lighting and refrigerators to ensure customers get back on their feet as quickly as possible.

“We are now looking at how we can further support those customers who also have damage to non-essential items and are continuing to proactively keep in touch and support those affected.”