Following work carried out by Northern Ireland Electricity (NIE), shocked households in the Crawfordsburn area of the town watched as electrical appliances went up in smoke around them.

One woman described her ordeal as she switched on a TV only to hear a loud ‘bang’ as it fizzed out.

“I was sitting at the kitchen table doing a crossword when I noticed that the electricity supply had been switched back on again, so I got up and thought I would put on the TV,” she described.

“But as soon as I did there was a loud bang.

“Then my husband shouted for me as there was smoke rising from the oven. After that we tried switching on a light in the living room but - bang - off it went too.

“So realising that we couldn’t make anything hot for dinner I went to the fridge to get something for a salad. As soon as I opened it - bang - and out went the fridge light. I rang the NIE helpline and we didn’t touch anything else after that.

“Apparently when the electric was switched back on again, the voltage was twice as high as it should have been.

“To be honest as long as we are compensated, that’s the main thing. I have a TV, a digibox, two electric clocks and a bulb from my fridge/freezer that I want to be compensated for but I suppose we were lucky - other people have been left much worse off.”

NIE representatives rushed to the affected houses and carried out immediate surveys urging people not to use their electrical equipment.

Speaking to the MAIL, Ken McCracken, NIE Customer Relations Manager for the Maghera area, said, “A contractor, working on behalf of NIE, appears to have mis-labeled the three phase electricity supply while removing electricity equipment from homes in the area.

“Once the power was re-energised, an increased level of voltage caused some damage to appliances in 14 homes in the Crawfordsburn area.

“The incident occurred on Tuesday 29 April and NIE immediately launched a technical investigation into the cause of the fault.”

“As an act of goodwill, NIE has appointed loss adjustors, who visited affected homes on Wednesday, and we have also appointed an electrician to rectify any damage to lighting or heating systems.”

In a further bid to save their own bacon quickly, representatives re-visitied the affected homes last week, removing damaged appliances for repair.

But one week on and houses were still feeling the effects of the burnout.

“I had my TV taken away and repaired,” explained the lady who watched appliances falter before her eyes.

“But even this week I still can’t pick up SKY or RTE on my television.”