A coal conveyor and silo on fire at Eskom's Majuba power station, 18 December 2019. Picture Twitter / Chris Yelland
A coal conveyor belt and silo at Majuba power station in Mpumalanga burst into flames this afternoon, but the fire has been extinguished, Eskom said.
The power utility said in a statement the fire broke out at the incline conveyor belt system from the rail offloading facility at about 3pm.
The power station’s fire brigade extinguished the fire swiftly, and no injuries were sustained.
“The incident does impact on our coal delivery to Majuba power station which was primarily done via rail. We will use road delivery to offset the absence of rail transportation for the duration of the recovery of the damaged infrastructure. Majuba power station’s coal stock is healthy at over 50 days of stock. We expect that the reclamation from the coal stock and road delivery will be adequate to sustain Majuba burn,” the statement read.
“We will have to wait for the facility to cool down in order to start a forensic investigation to determine the cause of the fire. Once it is safe, the investigation will commence,” Eskom said.
Social media users were immediately anxious about possible load shedding, but according to Eskom’s statement, this should not happen.
The word “sabotage” was also bandied about, with energy expert Prof Anton Eberhard calling for a thorough investigation, saying that the economy is being undermined.
(Compiled by Carina Koen)
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