THE founders of animal charity have thanked a power company for helping them after their transformer melted due to the heatwave.

JoJo Johnson, who runs Pennines Wildlife Rescue on Blackcleugh Farm in Carrshield with her husband Anthony, praised the 'quick work' of Northern Powergrid (NPG) after it melted and spilled oil due to the extreme heat of more than 36 degrees on Tuesday.

After making NPG aware of the problem, the farm was taken off the grid enabling the surrounding area of Catton to have power.

The couple's main aim was to make sure they were able to look after the animals they have rescued.

Some of the 150 animals on the farm include ducks, hedgehogs, hens, swifts and a pig.

Luckily the couple had two backup generators they bought after Storm Arwen and they were able to keep the farm running until the problem was solved.

JoJo said on Wednesday: "NPG did a very good job.

"They were able to replace the transformer yesterday and put a new one in by 10pm.

"Thankfully they also dealt with the oil spillage from the transformer melting.

"It turns out that it was from 1952 so it was definitely in need of replacing."

A NPG spokesman aid: "Around 3pm on Tuesday we had to redirect power from 322 houses in the NE47 area.

"At 3.45pm we were able to restore power to 300 houses but engineers were still on site to try and solve the problem.

"Engineers were on site until 9.30pm restoring the last power to a customer."