Poplar substation fire: Some east London homes remain cut off

Mum of two young girls, Kerry Tabner, was left without hot water for her baby's bottle

Some households in east London are still without power after a fire at an electricity substation initially caused 28,000 homes to be cut off.

Engineering teams worked through the night at the site, on Castor Lane, in Poplar, but some properties around Narrow Street in E14 remain cut off.

The fire began at 13:00 BST on Tuesday, and by late evening, 2,700 homes in E1 and E14 were still affected.

There was also major traffic disruption, and the DLR was suspended.

Kerry Tabner, who has a newborn and a seven-year-old daughter, was left without electricity or hot water for about 20 hours.

Updates were being sent by engineers but Ms Tabner said her phone ended up "dying" and she was completely reliant on friends to feed her children.

She said: "It was a big issue because I couldn't feed my older daughter and I had no boiling water to feed the baby.

"She has bottles, so it was very frustrating and I had to have a friend go and get me pre-made bottles."

She said a van was sent by a local authority or the power firm, "but it was 10 minutes down the road so I couldn't even go and charge my phone or get boiling water".

Travel disruption is likely to continue into the evening, the fire brigade said

A UK Power Networks spokesperson said they had been working closely with the London Fire Brigade (LFB) to reconnect power and fix damaged equipment.

They said: "Our engineers have advised that the vast majority of supplies in the E1 postcode area of East London have now been restored, following the fire in Castor Lane.

"We are aware that a small number of properties located in the Narrow Street area of E14 remain without power."

The latest estimate is for power to be restored to remaining homes by 22:30 TO 23:30 GMT.

An LFB spokesman said the cause of the fire was still unknown.

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