Komani in dark after 2 electrical explosions
Technicians say fixing transformers will take two or more days
THOUSANDS of Komani residents slept in the dark and cold last night. Contractors were racing to the stricken town and were expected to work through the night to fix the damage caused by two electrical explosions yesterday morning. The blasts and fires knocked out power throughout Komani and surrounds.
Last night there were concerns that water supplies would be affected too as there was no power for the pumps at reservoirs.
This was after two transformers in Queendustria and another in Ebden Street exploded, cutting power supply to the town’s 68 000 residents.
Municipal electricians at the scene of the explosion said it could take two or more days to bring power back up.
They said the Ebden Street transformer caught fire after they tried to switch on the Queendustria substation.
Enoch Mgijima municipal spokesman Fundile Feketshane confirmed the whole of Komani and Ezibeleni township were without power and that all businesses were affected. Only those with generators were able to keep their operations going.
John Rademan, general manager and director of operations at Queens Casino in Ebden Street, said: “It blew up right next door to my office. At about 10am I heard quite a big explosion, like a bomb. I went to look. On the top of the transformer there was a tank that was on fire. There was not much smoke, just flames about a metre high. The fire department was there quite quickly and put out the fire using a hose with an extra chemical cannister attached to it.”
Border Kei Chamber of Business chairwoman Adre Bartis said that in their discussions with Eskom it seemed the national utility had a transformer they could rent out to the municipality.
“[DA councillor] Zuko Mandile is trying to speak with Enoch Mgijima municipality executive mayor Sisisi Tolashe to try sort out the matter and also find out how much the transformer costs, and whether it will be able to carry the load,” Bartis said.
She said when the fire fighters came they had first used water to extinguish the fire and the oil was now contaminated.
“They have to drain all the oil and there is nothing that we can do now. We need to sit back and hope that this is resolved within the next few days.”
The DA’s Enoch Mgijima constituency leader, Terri Stander, said when the transformer in Ebden Street blew, it caused a fire that burnt the backup transformer as well.
“The municipality does not know when electricity will be restored. One transformer was blown today [Tuesday] and the circuit insulators also need specialist cleaning. At the moment connection is impossible.”
Stander said that according to the information she received, another circuit insulator blew months ago.
“The municipality wants that to be fixed and connected to a new transformer which was never commissioned and has an oil leak. At the moment both circuits are unusable.”
Stander said the electrical pumps had stopped working and the town was being supplied by water that had been pumped into the reservoirs in the morning. She said without power no more water could be pumped from Waterdown Dam.
Feketshane referred the Daily Dispatch to a statement they had put on Facebook at 10am stating that a circuit breaker had tripped due to a power overload. He wrote on Facebook: “The electrical unit is busy investigating the matter for the purposes of fixing it.”
In his statement on the site, he blamed the public for overloading the system, and appealed to people to take care not to turn everything on when power was restored.