RESIDENTS at a Bordon caravan site are demanding compensation after a power surge caused tens of thousands of pounds worth of damage to their electrical equipment.

The surge hit the Red House site in Hogmoor Road at around 6-30 am on Thursday causing televisions, videos and other equipment to burst into flames.

Some residents were forced to hurl pieces of equipment out of windows and doors to prevent the fires spreading.

Others told The Herald how they had been lucky to escape injury because they had been awake at the time of the surge.

But so far no-one has admitted any liability, leaving some residents up to £3,500 out of pocket.

Dick Barton (92) said: "I heard this loud popping noise and thought some kid had put a brick through the windscreen of my car.

"I went through to the lounge and saw that my television was on fire and black smoke was filling the room.

"I rushed to the kitchen to get my fire extinguisher but by the time I got back it was too late and the TV was well and truly burnt."

Mr Barton said that so far no one had admitted responsibility for the fire and that his house and contents insurers are refusing to cover the cost of repairing the damage.

Toni Rickwood has yet to add up the value of equipment she lost, which included a new microwave, two televisions, a video, an answerphone and a computer printer.

"I'm still getting over the shock," she said when approached by The Herald.

"I just remember waking up and seeing all this black smoke billowing out of one of my televisions.

"I panicked and ran outside, then went back in and threw the television into the garden.

"At the moment everyone is saying that they are not responsible."

Gary Varns said that when the surge hit he connected his multi-meter to the power source and measured up to 377 volts coming into his home.

"It's a catastrophe for the site - it's just gone through everything," he said.

Margaret Groves said that her lights had started flickering at around 6 pm the previous evening and that a neighbour called Southern Electricity Board at around 1am to report the problem.

"She telephoned because she had a small child asleep and she wanted to make sure everything was OK," she said,

"They told her it was fine and that there wasn't any problem.

"I was lucky because I'd woken up early and decided to make a cup of tea and watch television.

"I turned it on and it immediately caught fire. I just instinctively picked it up and threw it out of the back door into the garden.

"It could have been much worse if I'd been asleep."

Few people living on the site, which houses around 140 families, have been left unaffected by the surge.

And this week there were mounting calls for someone to take responsibility and pay up, but it appears unlikely that this will be resolved quickly.

"Someone has got to pay up because many of the people living here just can't afford this kind of loss," said resident Patricia Stanton.

Southern Electricity spokeswoman Sophie Greenyer said: "We supply electricity to the site, but the site then has its own network.

"We take it onto the site at a certain level and the owners distribute it around using their own metering system.

"There was nothing wrong with the voltage going into the site. It appears that the voltage in the lines around the site was not of an appropriate level."

Despite repeated efforts to contact site manager Donald Harris, he was unavailable for comment at the time of going to press.