Road closed sign. Pic: FreeFoto.com

Staff from the county’s highways team were called into action overnight after a fire at an electricity substation knocked out traffic lights across Lichfield.

Thousands of homes and businesses were left without power following the incident near to the Esso petrol station on Eastern Avenue.

A number of road closures were put in place while fire crews worked to battle the blaze.

Cllr Mark Deaville, Staffordshire County Council’s Cabinet support member for highways, revealed that the city’s traffic lights returned to action at around 5am.

“Our highways team really pulled out all of the stops last night to manage traffic and road closures to ensure people were safe,” he said. “They have been supporting the emergency services which have done admirable job in dealing with this situation so quickly.

“Thankfully these sorts of incidents do not happen often – but when they do it’s good to know how effectively the different organisations respond together.”

Founder of Lichfield Live and editor of the site.