City Power: Three substations switched off after Joburg CBD explosion
City Power will not respond to outage calls from residents in the Johannesburg CBD after Wednesday’s explosion left them in the dark.
Three of the utility’s substations are within the explosion area.
The explosion on Lillian Ngoyi Street in Joburg CBD, the cause of which remains unknown, left one person dead and 48 others injured.
Twelve people were taken to nearby hospitals for medical treatment.
Spokesperson Isaac Mangena says Bree, John Ware, and Braamfontein substations have been switched off for safety reasons.
“Three of our substations were affected because they are interconnected. This includes Bree, John Ware and Braamfontein substations. They will remain off until both the provincial command centre and the municipal emergency services give us the go-ahead to start switching them on.
“From preliminary investigations, it does not look like these three substations were affected immediately after the explosion, as power in some areas was still on. However, the substations were load shed from six to eight in the evening, and our teams decided that we should not switch them on for fear that it might ignite with reports of suspected gas leaks in the area.
“Our teams will not be responding to any outage calls in the CBD, especially around the area of the explosion, until the area has been declared safe.”
Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi, Joburg Mayor Kabelo Gwamanda, and other city officials visited the area on Thursday morning to assess the extent of the damage.
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