A “tunnel fire” could be the cause of the power outage in many Kempton Park suburbs since 10am on Friday morning.
But what this means, remains a mystery, as residents are still waiting for a proper answer from the City of Ekurhuleni, or when power would be restored.
Power went off in various suburbs on Friday morning around 10am, affecting, among others, parts of Glen Marais, Pomona, Bredell, Bonaero Park, Aston Manor, Nimrod Park, the CBD and extensions of Kempton Park.
Many of these areas were still without electricity after 9pm.
Kempton Express did not received any official comment to inform its readers.
This tweet was posted two hours ago:
⚡#CoEpowerAlert -Kempton Park
— CITY OF EKURHULENI (@City_Ekurhuleni) September 20, 2019
The City of Ekurhuleni is aware of power failure affecting parts of Bonaero Park and Aston Manor. Electrical cables have been affected by fire in the area. Technicians will investigate the close extent of the damage once it is safe to do so.
However, DA ward councillors managed to share some information on Friday evening about the prolonged outage.
Information shared with Ald Andre du Plessis on Friday evening read: “Our cable works have been affected by fire in close proximity (sic). It is still unsafe for our team to go into the affected area.”
Du Plessis was of the opinion that there was a fire at a substation due to neglect and no maintenance, thus the metro was reluctant to communicate.
“We have been trying to get information from the engineer all day with no response. Then, when I sent it to the HOD and city manager this evening, he [engineer] responded with the fire story without elaborating. I wonder why?” said Du Plessis.
Other information shared by ward councillors indicated that 66kV cables supplying Aston Manor that runs through “the tunnel” were badly damaged during this fire and needed to be repaired.
This tweet was posted nine hours ago:
#CoEpowerAlert -Kempton Park
— CITY OF EKURHULENI (@City_Ekurhuleni) September 20, 2019
Technicians are investigating the cause of the power failure affecting parts of Pomona, Bredell, Bonaero Park and Aston Manor in Kempton Park. The estimated restoration will be communicated once the cause has been identified. @KemptonExpress pic.twitter.com/wLgqct05mv
Bonaero Park and Aston Manor tripped because of “fire underneath transmissions lines”, one message read.
During restoration of the remaining areas, it was discovered that there was a fault “in the tunnel” and it still had smoke which prevented full assessment, the metro communicated to Du Plessis.
Ward councillor Pieter Henning said: “Please advise where the fire was and why are we only advised about this 10 hours after the power went out? We need to advise residents a restoration time tonight.”
Ward councillor Jaco Terblanche said he was informed that cable works had been affected by “fire in close proximity”.
