Residents in the Johannesburg city centre are without electricity after a fire at the Bree substation in the early hours of Friday.
City Power teams are on site, working with emergency services to manage the situation and ensure the area is safe.
A switch-on is unlikely until follow-up checks on Saturday.
The city’s Emergency Management Services (EMS) division has declared the substation unsafe to enter at this stage, City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena said.
“For safety reasons, the Bree Substation will remain switched off until investigations, damage assessments, and risk evaluations have been completed.
— Isaac Mangena, City Power spokesperson
“As a precautionary safety measure, three floors of the residential building located above the substation have been evacuated.
“The structural integrity of the building has been compromised, with sections of the concrete roofing deteriorating and falling. In addition, the area remains extremely hazardous due to intense residual heat, boiling transformer oil, smoke emissions, and the presence of carbon fumes within the facility.”
Mangena said these conditions are preventing City Power’s teams from accessing the substation to conduct a full damage assessment and determine the extent of the losses.
“EMS has indicated that safety clearance for entry into the facility is only expected on Saturday, once the environment has sufficiently stabilised and it is safe for personnel to enter.
“Until such clearance is granted, we cannot begin the formal investigation into the cause of the fire or quantify the damage to infrastructure and equipment.”
Structural engineers and inspectors from the department of labour have arrived on site to assess the structural condition of the facility and surrounding buildings.
“For safety reasons, the Bree substation will remain switched off until investigations, damage assessments, and risk evaluations have been completed,” Mangena said. “Restoration of supply will only commence once it has been confirmed that it is safe to do so.”
Areas affected by the outage are Newtown, parts of Parktown, Braamfontein, Bree West, Bank City, Ferreirasdorp, parts of the Johannesburg CBD, and Marshalltown.
Affected streets and buildings include Diagonal Street, Harrison Street, Simmonds Street, Ntemi Piliso Street, Rahima Moosa Street, the New Stock Exchange via John Ware, Bank City No. 1 and 2, President Street, the JCI Building, Pritchard Street West, Kerk Street Central, Jeppe Street West, Bree Street West, and surrounding areas.
City Power said it has logged 536 outage calls. “These calls are being grouped. Customers are advised not to be alarmed if individual calls are closed as part of this consolidation process.”
Residents are advised to unplug all electrical appliances to prevent possible damage from power surges when the electricity supply is restored, which may occur with little or no notice.
TimesLIVE
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