A small fire in the generator room at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Timehri caused by sparking wires which were dislodged when a “cross arm” from a utility pole fell yesterday morning saw the facility losing power for some hours as remedial works were done, according to Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the airport, Ramesh Ghir.
Electricity was restored to the facility at around 5:30 pm yesterday however no flights were disrupted, Ghir told Stabroek News.
According to Ghir the generator was not in use when part of the pole, which is some distance away from the generator room, fell at around 1pm yesterday.
“The cross arm of the pole… fell and it created a feedback into the lines running to the generator room resulting in two wires melting and creating a spark which caused a small fire at the entrance of the generating room,” Ghir told this newspaper when contacted.
The fire was immediately put out by members of the Guyana Fire Service but Ghir said a decision was taken to cut power at the facility so both employees of the airport and GPL could do thorough checks to ensure that all was well before power was restored. He said the area of damage was identified.
Some water was found in the breakers and had to be dried, Ghir said.
At the time of the disruption two flights were set to leave the airport and they were allowed to do so without any disruption as passengers had already been processed. Ghir said no flight was scheduled during the time of the power outage and as such there were no flight delays.
No damage was done to the generator, Ghir assured.
