GPL says it is  very concerned that persons seem to be taking electricity theft  to new heights since on Monday the illegal interference  with a transmission line operating at 69,000 volts was suicidal.

The  power company said in a press release that the power outage on Monday  evening  which   affected the Demerara Interconnected System (DIS) was caused by an attempt by someone to steal power from the 69,000 volts transmission line linking the Garden of Eden Power Station to Sophia.  This  incident, GPL stated,  occurred in the vicinity of South Ruimveldt.

According to the release, residents in the area said that they saw an enormous blue flare and heard a loud explosion before the power outage.   GPL engineers confirmed that what the residents had seen and heard was consistent with what happens when anything comes into contact with or is in close proximity to the transmission line.

When the engineers visited the area, they saw that a part of the transmission line was damaged where it is believed that the person attempted to make the illegal connection.  Also running along the pole was what is believed to be telephone cable  like the type used in other areas to steal power.

However, GPL said, it is not yet clear what is the extent  of injuries sustained by whoever attempted to make the  illegal connection, but it is possible that  the person may have been severely burned or his sight  may have been affected.

Serious injury and death are the consequences of such actions  besides the thousands of homes left without power as a result of such recklessness, the power company added.