Two contractors have escaped injury in the last week after two separate incidences in Co Fermanagh which damaged the electricity network and cut supplies to over 2,500 customers.

On Thursday, 5th March, contractors cutting trees for a Ballinamallard landowner felled trees across a high voltage line, breaking the line and leaving over 1,400 homes and businesses without power.

The next day contractors, who were clearing ditches near the primary school in Kinawley, hit and damaged a high voltage line, leaving the digger bucket entangled in the line. Over 1,000 customers in the area were affected while NIE emergency crews responded, assessing the damage and carrying out repairs.

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Fiona McClintock, NIE Customer Relations Manager for the area, says both these incidences were avoidable. She said: "Anyone considering work near the network should plan ahead to ensure your work does not bring you, or anyone on site, into contact with the overhead or underground electricity network. Both these contractors could easily have been killed and the contact with the network could have been avoided if safe working practices had been followed."

(CD/MH)