Pretoria - Residents east of Tshwane, who were plunged into darkness following an outbreak of a fire at the Wapadrand substation, have been urged not to speculate or listen to misinformation regarding the incident.
This was the plea made by Tshwane mayoral committee member for energy and electricity, water and sanitation, and regional operation and co-ordination Phillip Nel, during a visit to the substation yesterday afternoon.
Nel said the City was alerted to a fire outbreak at the substation, at around 8.45pm on Saturday night, which affected a small portion of the substation's control system.
He said the City's teams had managed to extinguish the fire, with the repair of the substation already under way.
Nel said, from information at their disposal, that the cause of the fire was a result of the feeder cable going to Koedoeberg catching fire.
He said the repair process would remove the damaged and non-functional panels, and parallel with that, teams would also test the cables to confirm if any of them had been damaged by the fire.
A resident, who lives close to the substation, said all they heard was a loud bang that sounded like an explosion, in the middle of the night, followed by a huge fire.
The resident said they were informed by the security at their estate that a fire had simply begun at the substation, with no warning.
Nel said the fire at the substation was the second incident, the first being in 2018.
He said although the substation was meant to be rebuilt in a matter of days following the first fire, refurbishment had been delayed by the insurance claim, which was only finalised by the City in November last year.
“It took a while to resolve the insurance claim, but the municipality has finally received the money and the tender has been preferred. All that is left is the process of the work being advertised to have this substation rebuilt completely,” said Nel.
Thankfully though, he said, they had some of the required panels available at the Orchards substation, and a team had already been sent there to bring some of those panels out to Wapadrand.
As a result of the teams’ hard work, Nel said their expectation was that half of the substation would be energised, which would ensure places, including Wapadrand, Lombardy, Silver Lakes, Fountains, Equestria, Swavelpoort, and Tierpoort, lines would be restored soon.
He stated that the Koedoeberg, Olympus, Faerie Glen and Boardwalk areas would take more time to energise, but work would continue.
“Work will continue around the clock and residents will be given updates on the situation.
“We, however, urge residents not to speculate on snippets of information they receive from the staff or neighbours, as we would rather commit to giving them regular and accurate information on the situation,” added Nel.
Pretoria News