A BLAST echoed through a York street when an electrical fuse box short-circuited.
A pavement grate was blown from its hole and debris was scattered following the explosion outside York Camera Mart, in Church Street, at 8.45pm yesterday.
Firefighters were on the scene within minutes when shop assistant Martin Owens, 20, raised the alarm after hearing the blast from the adjacent Wine Rack.
"It hurt my ears, it was that loud," he said.
"I thought it was a car crash at first. There was smoke coming out of the ground."
Sub-officer Kevin Caulfield said two appliances attended the scene.
"We made sure the area was safe until the electrical engineers arrived," he said.
"On investigation we discovered it was an underground electrical fuse box that had short-circuited. The power was cut to that block of shops.
"A small amount of debris was sprayed across the pavement, but fortunately no one was hurt."
No one from power firm NEDL was available for comment.
Updated: 10:33 Friday, June 07, 2002
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