Electrical fire at Port of Spain substation causes partial city blackout

An electrical fire broke out at the Master Sub-Station on Park Avenue, Port of Spain, reported by the Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission (T&TEC). The fire, which involved an electrical panel, caused a partial blackout across a wide area of the city between 11:15am and 1:15pm, affecting areas from Ariapita Avenue and Park Street in the north to Independence Avenue in the south, Woodford Square in the east and Wrightson Road in the west. Officers from the Wrightson Road Fire Station of the Trinidad and Tobago Fire Service responded within a minute of the report and extinguished the blaze in 20 minutes. The affected panel was valued at an estimated TT$250,000, with damage estimated at TT$100,000. The source reports that the nearby PowerGen site in Port of Spain was decommissioned by T&TEC in January 2016 but still houses a 12,000-volt supply and a 132,000-volt substation. Casualties were not reported.

The cause of the fire had not been determined at the time of reporting and the fire service was investigating. The source notes that although the PowerGen site was decommissioned in 2016, live medium and high voltage electrical equipment remains in place at the location.

1. Sites where generation has been decommissioned but live switchgear and high voltage equipment remain need the same fire safety oversight and inspection regime as fully operational facilities.
2. Short fire service response times, supported by clear operator notification procedures, limit damage and outage duration at substations serving dense urban areas.
3. Where the cause of an electrical panel fire is not immediately clear, a documented root cause investigation should follow, with findings fed back into maintenance schedules for ageing grid assets.

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