FOUR homes were at the centre of a fire scare today after metal thieves stole copper cable from an electricity sub station.

The incident caused electric fuse boxes to burst into flames following a sudden surge of power early today.

Hundreds of other homes were blacked out for hours when electricity supplies were cut off as

a safety precaution.

Thieves targeted a electricity sub station in Greenock at the corner of Burns Road and Lothian Road, near Inverclyde High School, where they removed every copper cable during the night.

"They must have known exactly what they were doing," said an insider at ScottishPower. "People have been killed doing this sort of thing."

The sub station serves

almost 300 homes

and the theft of copper triggered a surge of electricity.

It led to electric fuse boxes overloading and bursting into flames at a ground floor terraced home in Devon Road, a house in Cambridge Road and two neighbouring homes in Burns Road.

A householder in Devon Road had to be treated for minor smoke inhalation by an ambulance crew after firemen used dry power to extinguish the flames.

ScottishPower rushed engineers to the Inverclyde town and shut down supplies from the sub station to almost 300 homes in the area. Householders will be without electricity for most of the day.

A ScottishPower said: "We will need to check every electric box in every property served by this sub station."

A fire service spokesman added: "Those res­ponsible were callous."

Police said investigations were continuing.