THOUSANDS of homes in Winwick were hit by a power cut last weekend leaving residents without water and electricity on the hottest day of the year.

Almost 6,000 homes and businesses lost their electricity at 2.24pm on Saturday and 20 minutes later the water supply also stopped.

A transformer blew up in the electricity substation on Hawleys Lane in Dallam, which supplies power to Winwick properties, and 5,977 customers had to cope in soaring temperatures without fans or air-conditioning.

And Burger King's restaurant and B&Q Warehouse on Delph Lane were both closed losing trade on their busiest day of the week.

Maureen Fance, whose son Ian and future daughter-in-law Karen live on Hornby Lane in Winwick, said: "Both the water and electricity were off for most of Saturday afternoon in some of the hottest weather on record.

"Karen and Ian couldn't even ring anyone because the phones were down too and it's just ridiculous when people can't even use their fans or get a cold glass of water to cool down."

Scottish Power engineers reconnected 716 homes in just over two hours and within three-and-a-half hours the remaining 4,934 customers had electricity.

A spokesman for Burger King confirmed that the restaurant was closed for almost three hours on Saturday afternoon with the building reopening at 5.15pm.

But customers wanting to use B&Q were still being turned away at 7.30pm after being told the store would not reopen until Sunday morning.

Scottish Power has apologised to customers for the problems on Saturday afternoon and said the engineers had to make the area safe before they could repair the damage.

Engineers will be returning to the substation later this week to carry out permanent repairs but residents have been assured that their power supply will not be affected.

A spokesman for B&Q was unavailable for comment as the Guardian went to press.