More than 500,000 households in north-east
England may have been left without television or radio signal after a fire at a TV mast.
Fire services were called to the 1,032ft (315-metre) Bilsdale transmitter, near
Helmsley in North Yorkshire, on Tuesday afternoon when an engineer spotted smoke coming from its base.
A 1,000ft exclusion zone was in place around the mast on Wednesday due to concerns it could be structurally unsafe.
North Yorkshire fire and rescue service said it was waiting for the
site operator, Arqiva, to confirm whether the mast was structurally secure before it could determine whether the fire had been extinguished.
It added: “At this time there is nothing to suggest that the fire is the result of any criminal activity but this cannot be confirmed until a closer examination has been carried out.”
The transmitter, which has towered over the North
Yorkshire landscape since it was built in 1969, provides coverage to about a million people in the north-east including in York and Harrogate. An Arqiva spokesperson said it was anticipated that “any impact on services could affect approximately 500k households”. About 200,000 of those use Freeview as their primary TV platform.