Power Electrics' rapid response to fire at Aardman Animation

In the early hours of October 10th, a fire destroyed the Bristol warehouse used by Wallace and Grommit creators Aardman Animations to store their previous works. The fire blazed as high as 100ft at times and caused the roof of the Victorian building to collapse, wiping out the studio’s "whole history" including models, memorabilia and awards from the Oscar-winning Wallace and Grommit short films.

Soon after the fire began, the circuits tripped out and Western Power Distribution immediately sent engineers to the site to assess the situation. When they realised it would not be possible to restore mains supply to the area, they called in Power Electrics, one of the UK’s leading suppliers of generating systems. Power Electrics has been contracted to WPD since 2002 to supply generators that will back up WPD's power supplies in the event of any power failure.

Almost thirty metres of power cables running up the building were destroyed in the fire making it unsafe to restore mains power. One of the immediate requirements was to ensure that other businesses in the area were not affected by the loss of power. The fire brigade also needed to ensure that the building’s security alarm still operated, the fire had caused significant structural damage to the warehouse making it extremely dangerous for anyone to enter.

Power Electrics operates a 24 hour dedicated helpline to its customers to respond to situations like this and within an hour four generators were dispatched to the scene from the Bristol depot. The sets supplied ranged in size from 200kva to 350kva.

"It was vital that we got the generators to the scene as quickly as possible," said Brian Holland, business development manager at Power Electrics. "Our rapid response system is extremely effective because we have our own in-house resources, including transport, to deal with these situations."

"In order to offer a 24 Hour, 7 day cover to customers like the major utilities, our systems must work every time. This takes major investment in our products and services and personal commitment from all our staff."

"We are always impressed with Power Electrics' response to situations like these," said Neil Rawcliffe, Team Manager, Bristol Faults at WPD. "When the floods hit Boscastle in August 2004, Power Electrics generators were lifted into the town by helicopter within hours. We know that we can completely rely on them."