Smoke pours from manhole during junction box fire in Strathmartine Road

Police cordoned off a section of Strathmartine Road on Friday after smoke started rising from a manhole next to the remains of the former Derby Street multis.

The smoke was caused by an electrical fire and engineers from Scottish and Southern Energy were called in to isolate a junction box and make the area safe.

Fire crew manager Paul McCallum said they were alerted to smoke from the manhole by a member of the public at around 5pm.

He said: “There is a fault with an electrical junction box and our protocol in these situations is to get SSE engineers in.

“Police have made the area safe by cordoning off and closing the road just in case as there is the potential for an explosion.”

The electricity board isolated the fault and firefighters were able to ensure the fire was extinguished and left the scene in the hands of the engineers at 7.30pm.

The road was closed to traffic between Hill Street and Canning Street while the incident was ongoing.

Essential access for residents was maintained and controlled by police.

An SSE spokesman said no customers had been affected by loss of power as a result of the incident.