Electricity failure affects Western Isles and Skye
Supplies hit after power line incident kills forestry worker
(about 9 hours later)
Electricity has been restored to 30,000 homes after a power failure hit the Western Isles and all of Skye.
A forestry worker has been killed after the timber lorry he was driving hit an overhead power line on Skye.
The electricity supply was disrupted at about 12:50, but was returned to Stornoway on Lewis and Portree on Skye about 20 minutes later.
John MacKinnon, 65, from Crossal, died at the scene of the incident early on Thursday afternoon.
By about 16:30 power had been returned to 24,000 homes and the rest were connected by about 21:30.
Power had to be switched off for a short time to allow rescue workers to access the scene - affecting every property in the Western Isles and Skye.
It was not known if the outage was linked to a fatal accident involving a forestry harvester hitting a powerline.
A report has been sent to the procurator fiscal and police inquiries are continuing into the incident.
Scottish and Southern Energy said there had been a high voltage network fault.
Emergency services were called to a wooded area off the A87 between Kyleakin and Broadford after the alarm was raised.
The company said it had restored all supplies, but the network was still operating below capacity.
The electricity supply to 30,000 homes was disrupted as a result.
Fatal accident
Supplies were restored to Stornoway on Lewis and Portree on Skye within about 20 minutes, and by about 16:30 power had been returned to 24,000 homes. The rest were connected by about 21:30.
Engineers were sent to the scene of the fault, which SSE said was more significant than first thought.
An SSE spokesman said: "As our network is operating at reduced capacity, we are asking customers with power in Lewis, Harris and Skye to limit their use of non essential electricity for the time being."
Meanwhile, Northern Constabulary said a man had died after the forestry harvester he was operating came into contact with an overhead powerline in Skye.
Emergency services were called to a wooded area off the A87 between Kyleakin and Broadford at about 13:30, where the vehicle was on fire.
The man was declared dead at the scene.
He was later named as 65-year old John MacKinnon from Crossal, on Skye.
Police said a report would be sent to the procurator fiscal.
It is not known if this incident was connected to the loss of electricity in Skye and the Western Isles.
