Residents have been thrown into total darkness as a transmission station belonging to the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC), was on Sunday, gutted by fire, Igbere TV reports.
Igbere TV reports that BEDC is the company in charge of electricities in Edo, Ondo and Delta States.
The affected station is located in Sapele road area of Benin City, the Edo State capital.
Igbere TV gathered that the Sapele road station is one of the major stations serving the three Southern states.
An eyewitness and staff of the BEDC, told Igbere TV that the fire started with a spark, when power was restored, which resulted into an inferno.
He, however, added that the fire had already spread to the substations and surrounding units, before help came by.
According to him, “efforts to put out the fire were unsuccessful, as the inferno quickly spread to the main room leaving some staff on ground helpless.”
Igbere TV gathered that it took some extra efforts of the Edo State Fire Service, who arrived late, to put the fire under control.
When contacted by Igbere TV, a Spokesman of the BEDC, described the fire incident as “unfortunate.”
He lamented the grave impact the incident would have on power distribution, but however assured that there is no cause for alarm.
A statement later sent to Igbere TV management of the BEDC read: “The Management of Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) hereby appeals to customers in Edo State, parts of Delta and Ondo State over the present service disruption to their areas due to the fire incident which occurred at the Benin Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) station, Sapele road.
“Presently all areas connected to the Benin TCN are affected due to a partial system collapse arising from the fire incident as this TCN sub station is interconnected to other TCN locations across the country.
“Every effort is being put in place by stakeholders to restore the light as soon as the fire is contained.
“The specific locations affected by the fire are yet to be known but major parts of Edo State are affected by the outage.
“We appeal for customer understanding and cooperation over the situation.
“Please bear with us.”.
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