Linden hit by long blackout after voltage switch fire

A fire which engulfed a high voltage switch left all of Linden without power for hours before the situation could be rectified yesterday.

The switch within the high voltage system at the Bosai Power Plant caught fire during heavy rainfall yesterday, manager of the Linden Electric Company Patrick Dublin confirmed. Residents of Linden were without power from 3.30 yesterday afternoon.

According to Dublin, the Bosai Plant assured him that the current would be back up in about two hours time when this newspaper spoke to him around 7pm.

The Bosai Power Plant is responsible for the production of electricity for Linden while the Linden Electric Company is responsible for the distribution of electricity to McKenzie, Coomacka and Three Friends Mines/Mariah Elizabeth and the Linden Utility Services Co-op Society Limited distributes electricity to Wismar. All these areas were affected by fire to the switch.

Meanwhile, efforts to reach officials at Bosai were unsuccessful. When the Regional Chairman was questioned about the outage last evening he said that he was “not getting on to anybody” at the power company.