A SMALL number of households in Alloa have been left with no telephone and internet service after a telecoms pole went up in flames at the weekend.

A temporary provision has been established for residents in the Churchill Street and Windsor Gardens area, but engineers only managed to reconnect a few lines today, Friday September 22.

Services were disrupted after a blaze arose in the garden of a Churchill Street home, causing “substantial damage” to a BT pole and equipment in the early hours of Saturday, September 16.

It is understood the outage originally affected around a dozen nearby properties.

Windsor Gardens elderly resident Joe Mrozs, who lives on his own, said the fire burnt a number of lines down.

He feels engineers should have carried out the repairs more quickly. Luckily his daughters always check on him to make sure everything is alright, “but anything could have happened” and feared he would have been cut off as he has no mobile phone.

Joe was also critical of the customer service over the phone, which his daughters had to contact for him, saying it took hours to get anywhere.

A spokesman for Openreach told the Advertiser: “A suspicious fire in a nearby shed on Saturday spread to one of our poles serving the area, causing substantial damage to the pole and associated equipment.

“Our engineers have been out to inspect the damage which is severe, to the extent that the pole and the cables it carried will have to be replaced.

“We’ve alerted one of our poling teams who will be on site next week to replace the pole and new overhead cables have to be installed.

“Our engineers tried to provide a temporary service but the damage was such that they could only reconnect a couple of lines, leaving around 10 without service.

“We’d like to apologise for the inconvenience caused but, of course, it was entirely outwith our control.”

A spokeswoman for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service added: “The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service was alerted at 3.12am on Saturday, September 16, to reports of a fire that had taken hold of decking within the garden of a home in Alloa.

“Two fire appliances were immediately mobilised to the incident in Churchill Street.

“Firefighters used a powerful water jet to extinguish the fire. Crews left the scene after ensuring the area was made safe.”