Updated: HUNDREDS of homes and businesses in Selby were left without power after heavy rain caused an underground electrical fire.

The fire happened shortly after midnight yesterday in Doncaster Road, when North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service were called following reports of smoke coming from an underground transformer.

A fire service spokesman said flood water, which was caused by a combination of heavy rain on Saturday night, and the rapid thawing of snow which had fallen on Friday, had leaked into the electrical device.

The water caused the transformer to short and set on fire.

Fire crews closed off the road, and identified the problem, before calling engineers from Northern Power Grid (NPG), who isolated the transformer as firefighters pumped water away from the device.

The fire extinguished itself, and engineers spent more than 11 hours working to restore power to the area.

A spokeswoman for NPG said the power cuts had affected 859 customers in 12 postcodes in and around the Doncaster Road area.

She said engineers were sent to the scene and made repairs to the transformer, rather than replace it, and all power was restored to the area by 11.25am yesterday.

“We would like to apologise to all our customers for any inconvenience caused by this incident,” she said.