Bree Street Explosion: 3 substations remain off due to suspected gas leak
Engineers and technicians are conducting tests to determine the extent of the impact on the electricity infrastructure.
City Power services in Johannesburg CBD are affected by the explosion that happened earlier this evening, July 19.
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“Bree, Braamfontein and Johnware substations are off until the Joint Command Team comprising the CoJ Emergency Services, Disaster Management and other CoJ and provincial units have given the go ahead,” said Isaac Mangena, City Power spokesperson.
Mangena said preliminary assessments does not look like the three substation were affected immediately after the explosion at about 17.30 as power in some areas was still on.
Also read: WATCH: Explosion on Bree Street possibly linked to gas line
“However, the substations were loadshed at 18.00 until 20.00, and our teams decided that we should not switch them on for fear that it might ignite with reports of a suspected gas leak in the vicinity,” said Mangena.
Bree substation is a few metres away from the area with the huge impact, and the suspicion is that its structural integrity may have been affected.
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“Our team of engineers and technicians are on site doing assessments and tests on the network to get the extent of the impact on the electricity infrastructure.”
Mangena told media that one City Power employee was injured during the explosion on her way to work, and she is one of those hospitalised.
“Our teams will not be responding to outage calls in the CBD until the area has been declared safe to access and work,” said Mangena.
