MUM Denise Silverwood has blasted power giants NORWEB for cutting off the electricity without a word of warning.

Despite urgent telephone calls, mother-of-six Denise, of Brierfield, was left without heat or light for 16 chilly hours.

Her biggest worry was for baby Jason, who is 22 months old.

He spent one of the coldest days of the year wrapped up in a coat in an attempt to keep warm, and, because the house is all-electric, Denise had no way of making a hot meal for him.

She said: "I'm absolutely disgusted. I rang and told them we had a young baby, but their attitude was 'there's nothing we can do'. I was really mad."

Denise and her partner Phillip had to get the family up and dressed with the light from just a candle and torch.

Christopher, aged four, Sarah, five, Andrew, 12, his brother Andrew, 13, and elder sister Louise 14, were sent off to school without even a warm drink inside them.

Said Denise: "I felt terrible. All I could give them was cold orange juice, Weetabix and cold milk. The house was freezing and they should have all had something warm inside them.

"Christopher is going in hospital soon for an operation and if he gets a cold or a cough they won't be able to do it. That was one of the reasons I was so mad."

A spokesman for NORWEB said: "We would like to tender our sincere apologies to the family. We had what the technicians call a transient fault, and when that happens we cannot locate it until the fault gets bigger.

"It went off on Saturday and again on Monday and on Tuesday night it blew completely.

"In all, 27 houses were affected and we managed to get them back on by two o'clock on Wednesday afternoon.

"The men must have been working all night to get it fixed. We do get faults on some cables but we cannot tell when they are going to happen. Fortunately, it is pretty rarely."

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