It wasn't fracking - but here's why lights were flickering in Blackpool last night

Flickering lights were reported across Blackpool on Wednesday evening, while some properties lost power completely.
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The sudden outage led to concern amongst residents, with some questioning whether it was related to the minor earthquakes being recorded in the resort and linked to Cuadrilla’s ongoing fracking operation in Little Plumpton.

But a spokeswoman for Electricity North West said it was down to an explosion in Yorkshire Street: “Third party damage to one of our underground power cables caused flickering of lights and loss of power to two customers at 8.34pm.”

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Engineers made the scene safe and were yesterday working to repair the damage and restore power.

Engineers were carrying out cable work in the road when the heard a loud bang and saw flames coming from the hole in the ground.

Emergency services, including firefighters, were called out but there were no reports of injuries, officials told The Gazette.