NEWSFLASH: East substation caught fire after two cable theft attempts
Two would-be thieves were arrested within hours of each other.
A substation in the east of Pretoria caught fire on Saturday morning after two would-be thieves had apparently tried to steal cables from it.
Residents in La Montagne reported smoke from the substation in Albertus Street.
Ward councillor Ben Chapman said the fire was allegedly a result of a short-circuiting caused when the two thieves tampered with the cables.
“Emergency services were quickly on scene to control the situation,” he said.
A local business owner Christo Smit said there were two separate attempts to steal cables from the substation.
“On Friday night, around 23:11 a security guard at our premises alerted me to the first attempt,” said Smit.
He said the would-be thief was caught after he had broken into the substation.
“We immediately called ADT and police and the man was arrested on the scene.”
Smit said barely two hours later there had been another attempt to steal cables at the same station.
“In the early morning hours we were again alerted to something happening at the substation.”
Smit praised security and the Silverton police who responded swiftly to the scene again to catch the second would-be thief.
Smit said hours after the arrest, smoke was spotted at the substation.
“Again authorities responded quickly to the scene,” he said.
Chapman said the fire was brought under control quickly.
“The Tshwane cable theft unit is also here to investigate,” said Chapman from the scene.
The extent of the fire damage was unknown at the time of publication.
Do you have more information about the story? Please send us an email to editorial@rekord.co.za or phone us on 083 625 4114.
For free breaking and community news, visit Rekord’s websites:
For more news and interesting articles, like Rekord on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or Instagram
