I'm surprised that no one has commented on
Mark's choice of images to accompany his
news item.
In the
first image we see three members of the fire and rescue service (assumed to be Essex) with a jet of water being directed downwards, probably into a footway joint chamber.
In the
second image we see into a footway joint chamber (possibly a large, three lidded, version) which now contains significant water, burnt & melted cables, burnt & melted fibre tubes and a destroyed joint closure (metallic pathway) or track node (optical fibre) or aggregation node (optical fibre).
Neither show a burnt out street cabinet nor a mobile phone mast.