On the evening of Saturday 30-Oct-2004 a fire at the Peterborough VHF radio site owned by Crown Castle International resulted in a complete collapse of the 150m mast, falling onto the transmitter buildings and neighbouring fields.
Peterborough serves the whole of Cambridgeshire and other neighbouring counties in the East Midlands.
Latest reports indicate all services are now back on air at low power from either the adjacent BT tower or the nearby ntl mast at Gunthorpe.
Once part of the BBC's VHF (405-line) television network, Peterborough provided VHF radio, providing network radio (FM and DAB) and BBC Radio Cambridgeshire to an area often described as the East Midlands.
The Peterborough station played a small part in broadcasting history when it carried Classic FM's 3-day pre-launch pilot transmissions. The station broadcast to the East Midlands as "Radio 101.9" without the presenters identifying themselves.
Some digital radio and mobile phone services have also been hit. The mobile phone company T-Mobile has stated that 63 of its sites in the Region have been affected
The 200-ton mast, owned by Crown Castle UK, crushed a two-storey unmanned building, and narrowly missed a road.
Hundreds of thousands of people were without radio services.
David Martin, editor of BBC Radio Cambridgeshire, said: "All the main networks have been affected by this. It's going to cause a huge amount of problems."
Mr Martin added BBC Radio Cambridgeshire could be off the air in Peterborough until Wednesday.
Farmer Nigel Rome, who lives at Manor Farm, Morborne, saw the blaze.
He said: "Our electricity flipped out at about 10.10pm.
"I received a phone call from Crown Castle UK asking if the mast was on fire.
"I looked out of my window and I could see a red glow. When I got up there it was already down."
A total of 20 firefighters from Dogsthorpe and Yaxley battled for five hours to bring the blaze under control, pumping 2,000 gallons of water on to the blaze from the turntable ladder.
Today the blackened, twisted remains of the tower were still on top of the building, which fire crews said was close to collapsing under the weight.
Firefighters and police officers are keeping an open mind about how the tower collapsed, but senior firefighter Ray McDonnell, from Dogsthorpe, said it was unlikely the tower had been targeted by arsonists.
He said: "We think the fire started about 80ft up the tower.
"If that's the case there's enough plastic insulation material to cause the severe heat which would compromise the stability of the tower."
Mr McDonnell said the mast had collapsed in a "zigzag" fashion, missing a country road and the nearby 300ft concrete British Telecommunications tower.
Stephen Arnold, a spokesman from Crown Castle UK, said the mast broadcast BBC Radio 1, 2, 3 and 4, as well as BBC Radio Cambridgeshire, Classic FM, and a number of other commercial and digital radio stations to Peterborough.
