Electrical fault at estate agents brings town to standstill

HEAVY traffic has formed in Henley this afternoon following an assumed electrical fault in the basement of an estate agents.

Five fire engines from the Berkshire and Oxfordshire stations attended the incident at Savills on Bell Street at around 11.30am. 

Cars were queuing as far back as Reading Road and Duke Street after firefighters cordoned off the area.

Andy Ford, the Oxfordshire station manager, said the causes of the electrical fault are yet to be determined but staff are still working in the building to make sure it’s safe. 

He said: “The occupiers had a smell of burning in one of the offices coming up from the basement and called us out and evacuated the building. 

“At the moment we are in the basement trying to expose the electrics to find out what has overheated. So we don’t think there’s a fire, we think it’s an electrical fault. 

“But we can’t say for sure it’s not a fire. Until we expose everything we don’t know for sure.” 

A total of six staff members were in the estate agents when they first smelt the burning. Stephen Christie-Miller, head of the office, said: “We were all walking around trying to figure out if the smell was one of us. 

“But the smell was coming from the basement and there was smoke coming out too. The firefighters think an electrical wire coming into the building was smoldering onto some paper – when you see five fire engines show up it’s pretty impressive.” 

Firefighters are now moving their vehicles to one side of the road to help the alleviate the traffic.