Fire at Pyramid substation north of Pretoria linked to reported sabotage

What happened

A fire gutted the Pyramid substation in the early hours, leaving parts of Rooiwal, north of Pretoria, without power and water. The City of Tshwane said the incident tripped the 132 kV Line 1 Bellom-Parktown and caused outages at Pretoria North, Wonderboom, Wolmer, Pyramid, Pumulani, Koedoespoort and parts of Waltloo, affecting the Rooiwal sewerage plant and households around the substation. A councillor who visited afterwards reported cut locks, a broken door, severed control-panel cables and a vandalised communication system, and described the damage as suspected sabotage.

A local farmer said this was the third time the substation had tripped and burned, and that more than 250 smallholdings were without water and power. The article does not report injuries or a confirmed cause.

Contributing factors

The cause is not established. The report links the fire to suspected sabotage and to damage of equipment said to help prevent fires. A resident also alleged that theft and a failure to replace a second transformer had left the site without a spare. Those claims are not independently confirmed in the article.

Lessons learned

1. After a substation fire, check for forced entry and damage to protection and communication circuits, and record what is observed separately from what is alleged.
2. Plan for a spare transformer or another restoration path so one failure does not prolong an outage.
3. Do not treat suspected sabotage as a confirmed cause until an investigation is complete.

Source

citizen.co.za