![Pinterest](https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://uknews.evprotec.com/builder-hit-with-24000-bill-after-striking-power-line-which-nearly-electrocuted-him/&media=https://uknews.evprotec.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/1_A-builder-has-been-hit-with-a-24000-bill-after-striking-an-underground-mains-powerline-that-could.jpg&description=UK Power Networks sent Mark Staples a £24,000 bill after he hit the 11,000 volt cable, buried less than a foot below the ground, at the property in Hextable, near Swanley, Kent A builder has received a £24,000 bill after striking an underground mains power line which nearly electrocuted him. Mark Staples, 53, hit the 11,000 volt cable, buried less than a foot below the ground, as he put up a fence at his sister's house. It led to a blackout across the village of Hextable, near Swanley, Kent. But Mark was, according to doctors, "incredibly lucky" to survive and photographs show his chisel melted from the shock. However, nine months later, UK Power Networks sent Mark a bill for £24,000. It said the high voltage underground cable sustained damage and the power to 1,368 customers was cut, which took engineers 10 hours to restore. The builder, though, has suffered nightmares since the shock and had a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Mark, who has worked as a qualified builder for 14 years, was working on land he and his relatives have excavated and built on many times, without coming across underground cables. He said: "We had dug a post hole just below a foot on the boundary where an old garden wall exists when I used my breaker to go through some footings to make it a little bit deeper for the concrete fence post. I had gone barely four inches with the chisel when there was a loud bang, flames and smoke and the deafening sound of electricity buzzing. "I let go of the breaker's handle instantly. They were plastic and I have been told that is what saved my life. We had struck a power main on my sister's property without any clear warning of its presence. It was not very deep. You would have expected there to be some warning." He was installing a new fence after a car crashed into the old one on on December 1, 2022. As the builder, from Swanscombe, Kent, has worked at the house for many years, and even recalls his dad working on it in the 1990s, he didn){kind=link}
UK Power Networks sent Mark Staples a £24,000 bill after he hit the 11,000 volt cable, buried less than a foot below the ground, at the property in Hextable, near Swanley, Kent
A builder has received a £24,000 bill after striking an underground mains power line which nearly electrocuted him.
Mark Staples, 53, hit the 11,000 volt cable, buried less than a foot below the ground, as he put up a fence at his sister’s house. It led to a blackout across the village of Hextable, near Swanley, Kent.
But Mark was, according to doctors, “incredibly lucky” to survive and photographs show his chisel melted from the shock. However, nine months later, UK Power Networks sent Mark a bill for £24,000. It said the high voltage underground cable sustained damage and the power to 1,368 customers was cut, which took engineers 10 hours to restore.
The builder, though, has suffered nightmares since the shock and had a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Mark, who has worked as a qualified builder for 14 years, was working on land he and his relatives have excavated and built on many times, without coming across underground cables.