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17/05/2012
Vandals Set Electricity Substation On Fire
Northern Ireland Electricity (NIE) has strongly condemned vandals who deliberately set on fire an electricity substation in the Ballysillan area of Belfast yesterday afternoon.
The fire at the Brae Hill Road, which was attended by the Fire Service and the PSNI, left around 1,200 homes and businesses without power and caused a network clean up operation costing around £50,000. It appears that vandals broke the locks on the substation doors and left a burning tyre inside it next to live electricity equipment.
Around 1,200 homes and businesses were affected by the subsequent power cut. NIE emergency repair teams responded immediately to make the area safe and managed to restore around 1,100 customers within an hour. The remaining customers had power restored by 00.15.
High voltage electricity equipment damaged by vandals in BallysillanRoy Coulter, NIE’s Director of Health, Safety & Risk, said: "This was a difficult repair job. Not only was the substation itself damaged by the fire but the vital cables supplying it were also damaged.
"We managed to salvage the customer supply cables to complete temporary repairs and restore power. Our engineers will be back onsite again today to install a new substation and complete permanent repairs. We cannot stress strongly enough how dangerous it is to tamper with electricity substations. Substations contain live equipment energised at several thousand volts of electricity."
"These vandals were lucky to make it out with their lives. As it is they caused considerable inconvenience to the local community and the deliberate damage is likely to run up a repair bill of around £50,000."
(CD/GK)
The fire at the Brae Hill Road, which was attended by the Fire Service and the PSNI, left around 1,200 homes and businesses without power and caused a network clean up operation costing around £50,000. It appears that vandals broke the locks on the substation doors and left a burning tyre inside it next to live electricity equipment.
Around 1,200 homes and businesses were affected by the subsequent power cut. NIE emergency repair teams responded immediately to make the area safe and managed to restore around 1,100 customers within an hour. The remaining customers had power restored by 00.15.
High voltage electricity equipment damaged by vandals in BallysillanRoy Coulter, NIE’s Director of Health, Safety & Risk, said: "This was a difficult repair job. Not only was the substation itself damaged by the fire but the vital cables supplying it were also damaged.
"We managed to salvage the customer supply cables to complete temporary repairs and restore power. Our engineers will be back onsite again today to install a new substation and complete permanent repairs. We cannot stress strongly enough how dangerous it is to tamper with electricity substations. Substations contain live equipment energised at several thousand volts of electricity."
"These vandals were lucky to make it out with their lives. As it is they caused considerable inconvenience to the local community and the deliberate damage is likely to run up a repair bill of around £50,000."
(CD/GK)
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Northern Ireland WeatherToday:Gale, coastal severe gale, northwest winds ease from late afternoon. Scattered showers will fall as snow over the hills at first, becoming isolated from mid-afternoon. Maximum temperature 7 °C.Tonight:Showers, scattered in the evening, will clear by midnight leaving the night dry with clear spells. Cloud will spread east towards morning. Minimum temperature 2 °C.
