On Thursday, July 28 a City power senior technician was killed after being electrocuted while working on a sub-station on Molopo Road in Wilro Park.
According to ER24 paramedics the City Power employee succumbed to his injuries on the scene before he could be airlifted.
ER24 paramedics arrived on the scene shortly after 9am to find another service already in attendance and found another man lying a few metres away from the sub-station.
Medics assessed the man and found that he had sustained severe burn wounds to his upper body, leaving him in a critical condition.
Medics treated the man and provided him with several advanced life support interventions, but, before he could be airlifted by a private medical helicopter to a private hospital for urgent care, he succumbed to his injuries.
According to a statement released by City Power, Acting CEO Ms Tshifularo Mashava is disheartened by the death of one of their technicians following an electrical accident.
Kallie Van Vuuren who is employed as a Senior Operator was killed during an explosion on one of the Minisubstations he was working on with his colleague in Wilropark, the colleague escaped unharmed.
Earlier on the day Wilro Park experienced an outage, and the two employees were working to locate the fault along Molopo Street when the switch from one of the mini substations blew up.
Van Vuuren, who worked at City Power for over 19 years was badly injured and paramedics certified him dead on site.
“It is a sad day for us at City Power as we lost one of our own, a hard working individual who dedicated his entire life serving the City of Johannesburg and City Power. On behalf of the Management and Board, we extend our heart-fealt condolences to the Van Vuuren family, especially the children who were with us on site, and strength to his friends and colleagues in City Power, especially at Roodepoort Service Delivery Centre.I have ordered that an internal investigation be conducted into the incident and the cause of the explosion. We will provide the necessary support to the family of our colleague during this time of need,” said Mashava.
The power utility reported the matter to the authorities, as it’s legally required, including the Department of Labour and the police who have taken over the scene.
According to City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena, the incident will unfortunately delay the repairs and restoration of electricity to the customers affected.
“We will start working immediately after the scene is cleared and handed over to us. We really apologise for the delays which are beyond our control, and the inconvenience caused,” said Mangena.
