The owner of a house in Blaenau Ffestiniog says it was lucky no-one was injured or killed after a “massive explosion” caused damage to her home and distress to her neighbours.

A ‘loud bang’ was reported at Lesley Maxwell’s house on Manod Road on Friday, 23 October, and it cut off the electricity supply to 25 houses.

The source of the bang was found to be the electricity distribution wall box on the front of Lesley’s house.

Lesley was at work at the time.

“I got a frantic call from a neighbour saying there was a massive explosion outside the house and orange smoke,” she said.

“Thank god no one was walking past when the explosion happened as no doubt it would have injured or killed someone.

“I was 45 minutes away and I couldn’t get hold of another neighbour who has a key to the house. I wanted them to see if there was a fire.”

Thankfully there wasn’t, but the outside of the house, which Lesley and her partner had only recently repainted, was left scorched.

Lesley added: “The massive explosion to the outside wall of our home caused damage as well as distress to all our neighbours. Most are elderly and require stairlifts that were put out of action.”

A spokesperson for SP Energy Networks said the incident affected the power supplies to 25 properties.

They added: “We immediately dispatched a team to investigate. We completed repairs to the damaged distribution wall box, which caused the outage, as quickly as possible.

“We’re sorry for any inconvenience caused and will discuss any outstanding issues with those affected directly.”

Lesley said SP energy has offered to pay for the damage to the house.

But Lesley told the Cambrian News the issue had been reported before.

“Days earlier there had been explosions outside our house,” Lesley said.

“We reported it on the Monday to SP energy, who came to check our household electrics and examine the black scarring outside our house. We were informed there was no danger and SP energy would be out within six weeks to check the junction as the road required digging up.”

But a spokesperson for SP Energy Networks said the failure of the cable itself a few days later could not have been predicted.

They said: “We visited the property on Manod Road on 19 October in response to a query raised about discolouration on the outside property wall only. On investigation, the ‘rust-like’ marks were identified as having been caused by the metallic guard used to protect the cables on the exterior wall, which is a fairly common occurrence on properties like this.

“Works to replace the cable guard were added to our programme of planned works, we checked the customer’s power supply and ensured everything was working as it should.

“There was no evidence anything further was required at that time, so the failure of the cable itself a few days later could not have been predicted. The safety and resilience of our network is our number one priority.”