Fire guts electricity sub-station in Benin

There was pandemonium on Saturday when residents of Textile Mill Junction and Siluko Road in Benin woke to discover that the power injection sub-station in the area had been gutted by fire.

PUNCH Metro gathered that the 15KVA power transformer in the area was engulfed in thick flames.

Some eyewitnesses in the area said that they heard a loud bang and later discovered that the injection sub-station was on fire.

While noting that they had been without power supply for some time, they wondered what the cause of the fire could have been.

One of them said, “We have been without electricity in this area for over a month now. This morning, we woke up and found out that there was a thick smoke coming out from the sub-station.

“The first thing I did was to call the police control room. They brought an empty tank here.”

However, some men of the Edo State Fire Service later arrived at the scene and our correspondent saw them trying to put out the fire and prevent it from spreading to nearby structures.

The distribution sub-section operator of the Siluko Injection Sub-station, Mr. Richard Omoigbe, said efforts to alert the contractor handling repairs on the transformer proved abortive.

“When I saw it, I called the contractor, but he said he was far from this area and told me to find out how to put it off from the switch.

“I ran down to remove the fuse, but by that time it had become a raging fire,” Omoigbe said.

The General Manager, Corporate Affairs, Benin Electricity Distribution Company, Mr. Curtis Nwadei, could not be reached on his telephone as of the time of filing in the report.

PUNCH