MORE than 500 homes in Ombersley were left without electricity in the early hours of this morning.

Supplier Aquila Networks Services Ltd put the power cut down to a small fire in a piece of equipment in the Moor Park area of the village.

A spokeswoman for Aquila said engineers were quickly out on site and were in the process of trying to restore power at the time the Evening News went to press.

"The fire started in a high voltage piece of equipment and around 500 homes were initially affected," said Rebecca Jackson, Press Officer for the company.

"We managed to restore power to around 450 of these homes but we were struggling with the rest.

"We do not think the power cut had anything to do with the wind and wet weather last night."

This is an issue which Aquila was quick to point out as the supplier was criticised for its actions following severe storms in October 2002.

A total of 330,000 houses across the country were then left without power, with people in rural Worcestershire and Herefordshire the most severely hit.

Since then, Aquila has taken a raft of measures to avoid a repeat of this, including cutting back more trees and using statutory powers to gain access to private land to carry out repairs more quickly.

The firm has also set up a special helpline people can call to find out when their electricity supply will be back on.

The number is 08457 331 331.