Warning after dog injured by electric shock in Ebbsfleet Garden City
15:42, 06 January 2020
updated: 13:24, 07 January 2020
A woman has described how her dog was briefly paralysed and started "screaming" when it received an electric shock on a public road.
Irma Lisauskaite, 36, is warning others to be careful after the incident, which happened yesterday when her German Shepherd, Roxy, ran past gated equipment and under power lines on Stopes Drive - part of new development in Ebbsfleet Garden City.
She and her daughter Savannah, 6, had decided to go for a short walk with three-year-old Roxy, after a trip to the nearby Co-op on Sunday afternoon, but soon realised something was wrong.
"I think people must be made aware," said Ms Lisauskaite, a deputy manager for a holiday lets company. "Yesterday we came back from London and we stopped for some shopping at the Co-op. We let our dog go for a little run but she suddenly started screaming. I told my daughter to run away because she was about to step on the same place where the dog was, and she stared crying because she was scared.
"My dog couldn't move - she was just yelping and yelping. I had to lift her up and physically move her away."
As she rescued Roxy she noticed the concrete at that section of road was damp, and wondered if that was in some way connected to the incident.
Roxy initially seemed uninjured but when they got home to Betsham Road, Swanscombe, Ms Lisauskaite said she noticed her eye wasn't right.
"I noticed there was blood in her eye," she added. "She looks OK now but her eye is still not quite right - her eyelid is a bit down. I hope there was no internal injury.
"I called UK Power Networks and they said they will send some engineers out. It's near a new development so it must be something to do with that."
She said she is convinced there is some form of electric leak coming from nearby cables, as she has previously felt a mild electric shock in the area herself, and other residents have reported similar incidents.
"A couple of weeks ago we went for a walk in that area," she recalled. "As soon as we got to the electric substation where you have electric cables overhead, we felt a small electric shock.
"We thought it was funny, and my daughter made a joke. It just felt like static, and my dog was fine that time."
However, she said she was unlikely to return to the area any time soon after Sunday's incident, adding: "I don’t want to go anywhere near."
Another resident commenting online said they had previously been a large sub station in the area, which made people's hair stand on end when they passed under the power lines.
UK Power Networks spokeswoman Niamh Arnett said: "Safety is our top priority and when our engineers attended last night no fault was found on our equipment. We have reported it to GTC, the Independent Distribution Network Operator for the area and investigations are ongoing."
She later added that the site referred the gated area under the power lines was a Redrow pump station.
GTC spokeswoman Carly Wilcock said: “GTC engineers attended the development yesterday and following our investigation no fault was found on our equipment. We are liaising with National Grid who’s investigations are currently underway to identify any other possible cause”.
National Grid spokeswoman Helen Blake said: “We are in contact with a member of the public who has reported an issue in the Stopes Drive area of Ebbsfleet Garden City. Engineers have been to the site and have found no fault with equipment, further investigations are ongoing.”
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