AN ELECTRICAL fire forced police to close a busy thoroughfare for more than three hours yesterday - causing a second successive evening of travel chaos for many of Islington s commuters.
AN ELECTRICAL fire forced police to close a busy thoroughfare for more than three hours yesterday - causing a second successive evening of travel chaos for many of Islington's commuters.
Pentonville Road, Islington, was closed from 5pm until 8.30pm after an electrical explosion - causing more rush-hour strife for people who had struggled home on overcrowded buses and through gridlocked roads during Tube strikes the day before. A firefighter from Clerkenwell Fire Station said: "It brought that area to a standstill. An underground electrical link box exploded and caused a small fire on the pavement affecting shops and dwellings in the area. We were called out about 5pm and we extinguished the fire."
Chris Catley, assistant manager at Cycle Surgery in Pentonville Road, said: "We had a few people who had to do a bit of a detour to get to us, but nothing excessive.
"The only part that was closed off was the actual road so most cyclists just walked on the footpath to get to us. We weren't amazingly busy but that was probably more to do with the torrential downpour at the time.
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