Blackout in part of Central Region
A severe fire last Saturday evening gutted the substation of the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo) at Winneba Junction in the Central Region.
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The fire which reportedly started around 7p.m. resulted from an explosion of an underground cable behind the substation.
It destroyed the main transformer, the control room, as well as the feeder. This affected power distribution to Winneba, Agona Swedru, Apam and surrounding communities.
At the time of going to press last night, all the aforementioned areas are without electricity and according to officials of GRIDCo, they would be in darkness for some days as steps are taken by the company to restore power to those areas.
It took the combined efforts of officials of the Ghana National Fire Service from Winneba, Agona Swedru and Apam, about two hours to control the inferno.
Two firefighters, Messrs Divine Akpali and Rockson Nyarkoh, fell unconscious while trying to bring the fire under control and were rushed to the Winneba Government Hospital for treatment.
They were responding to treatment at the time of filing this report.
Fire service
The Central Regional Fire Safety Officer, Mr Mark Awotwe-Quaye, told the Daily Graphic that the service had a distress call around 7.30p.m. and personnel from the three fire stations proceeded to the scene.
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He said the two affected officers collapsed after inhaling too much of the fume emanating from the control room.
The head of Public Relations of GRIDCo, Mr Albert Kwesi Quainoo, told the media that officials of the company were on the ground to assess the extent of damage caused by the fire.
He said GRIDCo had brought all the needed cables to replace the damaged ones, as well as panels to replace those destroyed by the fire in a bid to restore power to the affected communities.
He appealed to power consumers in the affected areas to be patient as steps were being taken to restore power.
Minister’s visit
The Central Regional Minister, Mr Aquinas Tawiah Quansah, in the company of the Effutu Municipal Chief Executive, Nii Ephraim, visited the scene to ascertain at first-hand, information about the incident.