Two held after blaze at flats from electricity meter is bypassed

Three police officers were taken to hospital after rescuing a man from a burning flat as it was suspected the fire was caused by an electricity meter which was being bypassed according to the fire service.

The police officers suffered from smoke inhalation during the blaze but it is thought they are responding well to treatment.  The fire crew were called in the early hours of the morning to respond to the blaze and just by luck police had been in the area when they spotted the fire which had spread to two other flats, these were a ground floor flat and a first floor flat.

Luckily the ground floor flat was unoccupied but a man was living in the first floor and had to be helped outside and he was also treated for severe smoke inhalation.

Police have now charged a 60-year-old man and a 51-year-old woman with abstracting electricity. The man has also been charged with arson.

Watch commander Alan Holdsworth said: “There was quite a bit of smoke damage to the ground floor and first floor flat. This shows the dangers people put themselves and others in when they bypass electrical meters.”

One resident, who did not want to be named, said: “We could all have gone up in a fireball. The gas pipes run right next to the electricity meters – people could have died. There are elderly people and children in that block. There could have been utter devastation.”

Electricity workers and gas workers attended the scene and worked through the early hours to make the property safe and secure using a mini digger to excavate the pipes.

The metre box was completely burned through, exposing grey charred wiring and melted workings.