Tens of thousands of Alexandra residents are waking up without power on Wednesday following a fire at a local substation.
City Power has confirmed the blaze broke out at the Vasco da Gama Switching Substation on Tuesday night. Firefighters battled the blaze until midnight.
The city suspects that the substation tripped after an attempt to steal copper cables.
City Power’s Isaac Mangena said: “Areas that have been affected included from 1st Avenue to 20th Avenue between Vasco da Gama and Richard Baloyi Streets. The fire was put out towards midnight on Tuesday.”
Repair work will start later on Wednesday morning and there’s no indication yet of how long residents will have to go without electricity.
City Power is estimating that Alexandra residents will only have electricity again on Wednesday night.
Mangena said: “The infrastructure is still hot to work on and there is still too much smoke in the chambers and underground. We expect repairs to be done between 10 pm until midnight. We really apologize to the residents for any inconvenience caused.”
Meanwhile, Eskom has raised the alarm around the vandalism of its infrastructure in Gauteng.
Eskom’s Reneiloe Semenya has called on Gauteng residents to stop tampering with electricity infrastructure.
“Eskom will continue to work with law enforcement agencies in an effort to curb such activities. We would like to encourage members of communities to report all illegal activities and other illegal activities that are happening on the networks.”
-EWN
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