Substation explosion and fire at Seatides, South Africa

What happened

Shortly before 8am on Monday 11 September 2017, residents of Seatides, a settlement south of Ballito on the M4 in KwaZulu-Natal, heard an explosion and found the local substation on fire. A local ward councillor said it was suspected that faulty internal wiring caused the explosion and fire. The explosion was described as not particularly large, and nobody was hurt. Fire services from Tongaat and Umhlanga were unable to attend because they were already committed to other emergencies, so KwaDukuza Fire was called and sent a truck to extinguish the blaze.

The councillor estimated the damage at about R1 million. Only Seatides was expected to lose power as a result of the fire. No illegal connections were suspected as a cause.

Contributing factors

The councillor suspected faulty internal wiring in the substation. No illegal connections or other causes were suspected at the time of reporting. The source does not give a formal root cause.

Lessons learned

1. Substation internal wiring and connections should be inspected on a planned schedule, since faults inside enclosed equipment can cause explosive failure and fire.
2. Local fire response plans should account for the possibility that neighbouring fire services are already committed, so that a backup service is identified in advance.
3. Operators should confirm which customers will lose supply after a substation fire and communicate this promptly to residents.

More lessons on electrical protection and isolation, fire suppression and firefighting, outages, backup supply and restoration, from every incident on the register.

Source

citizen.co.za