RESIDENTS of Yonder Street, Ottery, were left without power today, after a lorry brought down electricity cables.

Shortly after 8am, a lorry wrenched the bracket holding the cable off the wall outside Leanne Rowland’s home. This left the live wire dangling low over the pavement, so Leanne called EDF Energy and the police to alert them.

Shortly after, another lorry came down along, carrying wooden slats which clipped the cable, bringing it down completely.

Leanne was frightened to go out of the front door. She had been on her way out to buy her six-month-old Jayden some medicine as the cable came down.

“It was lucky I didn’t walk out two minutes before, I’d turned back into the house to get Jayden’s hat and that’s when the lorry hit,” she said.

She called the police again, to say another lorry had hit. “If they’d come out after the first call, I think it could’ve been prevented,” she said.

Two other houses also lost power. Leanne’s neighbour, who wished to remain anonymous, was in the lounge wrapping Christmas presents when the lorry struck.

“The electricity cable was ripped from the outside of my house, there was a flash and the fuse box in the hall exploded,” she said. “I heard a bang and in my mind the lorry had come through the front door.”

The explosion left a crack on the inside of the front door. “I was really worried about opening the front door, because the handle is metal,” she said.

Lisa Franks, who lives opposite, provided warm drinks and shelter for those affected.

She said: “All I heard was a bang, it sounded like something had crashed into the side of the house.”

Western Power Distribution technician Alan Skinner estimated it would take up to four hours to get the power reconnected.

PCSO Maria Clapp said as soon as she heard of the incident, she and colleagues had gone along with road closure signs.

A South Western Ambulance spokesman said the rapid response unit from Honiton and a regular crew from Sidmouth had attended, and checked over the lorry driver at the scene, as he received an electric shock getting out of the cab, but had not been seriously injured.