'Flamethrower from the pavement' on Cuba St

Power company Vector is trying to establish whether a power outage in central Wellington this morning is linked to a street fire.

The fire service attended a blaze that started under the pavement on the corner of Cuba and Abel Smith Streets.

Onlookers described the scene as like a flame thrower coming out of the pavement.

Central fire communications shift manager Murray Dunbar said the fire was in a junction box under the pavement.

Vector Energy spokeswoman Philippa White said there were two power outages in central Wellington this morning. One was near Mount Victoria affecting about 4000 customers. Another was in the Tory and Victoria Street area and affected about 400 customers. Power had been restored to all but 60 customers.

Vector was aware of the fire but couldn't comment on the cause of the outage yet.

- NZPA