On Wednesday, March 16 around 07:05 reports were received that the substation on JG Strydom Road, closest corner Bergkaree Avenue, was on fire.

Emergency services found a lot of smoke coming from the substation before a City Power engineer unlocked the substation gates and doors.

Community Support Services (CCS), Fire Ops SA and City of Johannesburg Emergency Management Services (EMS) crews worked together to extinguished the fire before City Power assessed the damage.

City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena confirmed the incident and said City Power was attending to an outage caused by a fire at JG Strydom switching substation in Roodepoort.

Mangena said the fire, which started at around 06:30, razed down the equipment inside the substation that include the panels and feeder boards, leaving several customers around Weltevreden Park, Randpark Ridge and Allen’s Nek, among others, without power.

“Emergency services were called and the fire was put out. Repairs will only start after the area has cooled off and declared safe to work in.

“Unfortunately we are unable to give an ETR at the moment but, based on the extent of the damage caused, we anticipate that it may take about 48 hours to do the repairs and restore electricity to the affected residents.

“We really apologise to our customers for the inconvenience caused,” said Mangena.

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