Work is continuing to find the full extent of the damage caused by a power surge at the Civic Offices that led to its closure.
A council spokesman confirmed that computers caught fire as a result of the power surge at Doncaster Council’s Civic Offices, which opened just 14 months ago, and tests are being carried out to find out how much of the computer equipment has been damaged by the incident.
An electrical fault, originating from a faulty main switch is believed to have caused the surge.
It led to a complete power outage, and disruption to hundreds of council employees who were forced to work at council buildings across the borough after the top three floors were closed to workers for two days as a result.
The Civic Offices, which cost £20million to build and are home to around 1,600 council workers, were closed for most of Thursday following the incident, resulting in all council workers being evacuated from the building, and staff in ‘non-essential’ deparments being sent home. A contingency plan was put into place following the power surge.
Peter Dale, director of regeneration andenvironment, said: “Staff have been working tirelesslyto ensure that the Civic Office is in operation and no services are disrupted.Until testing is completed the overall damage and cost of last week’s power surge won’t be known. ”