WATCH: Substation fire plunges Lenasia South into darkness

The Lenasia South substation caught fire on Friday, plunging the suburb into darkness.

Videos circulating on social media show flames and plumes of smoke billowing in the air.

City Power told The Citizen technicians are attending to the outage caused by the fire.

Spokesperson Isaac Mangena said the fire is believed to have started at around 11am, with the cause and extent of the damage yet to be determined.

“One transformer is confirmed to be on fire and the team is on their way to the site. Emergency services has also been called. The cause of the fire is unknown at the moment. We will only start with the investigations after the fire has been put out.”

Mangena said affected areas include extensions 1, 2, 3 and 4.

“This affects power supply to other substations including the Lunar, Hopefield and Ennerdale substations which were isolated as a result. These we are hoping to restore later this afternoon.”

“We really apologise to the affected customers for the inconvenience this is causing. We will update customers of the recovery and restoration plans later. We currently do not have ETR (estimated time of restoration) for the Lenasia South substation. It can only be determined after assessing the extent of the damage,” Mangena said.

Residents vent their frustration

Irate residents have taken to social media to vent their frustrations over the incident.

It is believed that criminals use load shedding as an opportunity to raid areas of copper cables, resulting in extended power outages.

ALSO READ: Joburg residents warned to be vigilant as load shedding kicks in

Cable theft

Cable theft has become a chronic problem in the City of Johannesburg.

Earlier this year, MMC for Environment and Infrastructure Services in the City of Johannesburg, Michael Sun, said load shedding is not only about being in the dark due to blackouts.

“It is the exact time cable thieves strike and our infrastructure becomes vulnerable to outages,” Sun said.

“Not only does load shedding provide a handy schedule to the thugs that steal our cables and other equipment without the risk of electrocution, but City Power infrastructure wasn’t designed to be constantly powered up and powered down. The whole process makes the system more susceptible to faults.”

Residents are urged to try and prevent cable theft before it happens by reporting any suspicious behaviour in their neighbourhoods during load shedding.

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