Large sections of Johannesburg’s central business district and surrounding areas were left without electricity on Friday morning following a fire at City Power’s Bree Street substation.
The blaze broke out in the early hours, triggering a power failure. Shortly afterwards, an additional power line linked to the Bree Fordsburg feeder also tripped, worsening the outage.
City Power confirmed that emergency services are on site conducting damping-down operations. Initial assessments suggest that one transformer may have been damaged, although a full inspection will only be carried out once the area has been declared safe.
Spokesperson Isaac Mangena said the outage has affected several areas, including the Johannesburg CBD, Newtown, Braamfontein, parts of Parktown, Hillbrow, Berea and nearby suburbs.
“We will continue to update customers on the progress of the investigation and explore back-feeding options to restore supply so that customers are not left without power into the weekend,” Mangena said.
Meanwhile, Johannesburg Emergency Services indicated that a fire at a mixed-use building on the corner of Bree and Harrison Streets may be linked to the substation incident. The building houses both residential and commercial tenants.
Emergency Services spokesperson Xolile Khumalo said firefighters managed to contain the blaze before it spread to other floors.
“A large transformer on the ground floor is suspected to have caused the fire. Firefighters successfully extinguished the flames and remain on site conducting damping-down operations. No injuries have been reported,” Khumalo said.
Investigations into the exact cause and extent of the damage are ongoing.