Transformer fire and explosion reported to have killed residents in Jos North

What happened

Residents of Kabong community, in Gada Biyu District, Jos North Local Council, Plateau State, Nigeria, said a nearby power transformer caught fire and exploded at about 2:00am after supply was restored following an outage the previous evening. They said the voltage was too high when power returned. The blast and fire damaged houses and shops, with property losses described as worth millions of naira. A vigilante group spokesman told The Guardian Nigeria that no fewer than 10 people had been electrocuted and that more bodies might yet be found.

Other people were taken to nearby hospitals with burns and electrical shocks. The exact death toll and the technical cause have not been independently confirmed.

Contributing factors

Residents said power had been off from about 10pm the previous evening and that voltage was too high when it was restored at about 2:00am. That account has not been confirmed by the utility or by a technical investigation in this report.

Lessons learned

1. After an outage, distribution supplies should be restored only with voltage and protection checked, because residents linked this explosion to high voltage on restoration.
2. A faulted distribution transformer in a dense residential area needs rapid isolation, because fire and shock can affect several homes at once.
3. Early casualty figures after a transformer fire should be treated as incomplete until searches and hospital records are reconciled.

Source

guardian.ng