MINISTER ORDERS PROBEBy Darcel Choy, Rhondor Dowlat and Gary Darmanie Thursday, July 29 2010
AN EXPLOSION at a TT Electricity Commission (TTEC) substation in Port-of-Spain left three workers injured and parts of downtown Port-of-Spain in complete darkness for almost two hours yesterday afternoon.
The injured men were identified as: Gerald Simmons, TTEC Sub station crew foreman; electrician Clyde Khan, who is said to be in his early 20s, and technician Kenrick Ramsaroop.
Newsday was told the workers, who sustained “flash” burns (minor burns) to their backs and necks, were taken to the St Clair Medical Centre where they received medical treatment. They were also X-rayed and underwent a series of tests. According to medical sources, the men were to be kept overnight for observation.
The immediate relatives of the men were called in and allowed to visit them for a few minutes shortly before medical staff began preparing them to be warded.
When the men were first taken to the private institution, a team of management officials from TTEC led by assistant general manager Jonathan Cumberbatch went to ensure they were given the “best treatment.” Cumberbatch confirmed injuries to the three workers were not life threatening and assured that “all necessary precautions have been taken.”
Also, arriving shortly after at the hospital was a team of union representatives from the Oilfield Workers’ Trade Union, led by executive vice president Peter Burke. At about 7 pm, co-workers of the men were seen arriving at the hospital, however they refused to comment on the incident.
Preliminary investigations, according to Burke, revealed the explosion was caused by equipment failure, given the fact that “the station is over 50 years old.”
He added that power was restored to the affected areas in the capital city in almost two hours when the defective breaker was removed and loading was “picked up by another circuit”.
The explosion occurred at about 3 pm at Flament Street in Port-of-Spain. Officials said in a release that it was due to a “failure on the Bus Section Breaker connected to the 12Kc switchboard.”
An eyewitness said a surge was noticed before a loud explosion was heard at the substation. The witness said smoke started rising from the substation and an employee was seen evacuating.
When the Newsday arrived at the substation at about 3.30 pm, it was already flooded with engineers and technicians from both Powergen and TTEC as they worked feverishly to have power restored.
Media personnel, who were also on the scene, were told the electricity is channeled via two parts of the substation and the power was being transferred to the second part, in order for electricity in Port-of-Spain to be restored.
Assistant general manager Kelvin Ramsook, who was at the scene, confirmed the three injured men were working at the substation when the “Number 10 breaker, adjacent to them, exploded.”
When contacted Public Utilities Minister Emmanuel George said TTEC’s general manager Indarjit Singh was keeping him abreast of the situation. He added that he requested a comprehensive report on the incident. “I have asked him to compile a comprehensive report on this matter and explain to me why it happened and how to avoid it from happening again. So, I await the report because as the minister it is an uncomfortable situation when citizens have to experience these problems,” he said.
George expressed concern that outages were occurring too often and advised TTEC to be more responsible. “I have gotten a lot of reports from residents in Glencoe, Carenage and El Socorro that outages have been occurring on a daily basis. A few weeks ago, I wrote to the general manager and stressed that TTEC needed to pay attention to its customers’ complaints and the regularity of its outages,” he said.
In a release issued at about 4.45 pm, TTEC stated that 20 percent of affected customers had their power restored within forty-five minutes after the outage occurred. The other customers, the release added, were restored by approximately 4.45 pm.
Several main streets in the capital city were affected including, Henry Street, Frederick Street, Chacon Street, lower St Vincent Street, Prince and Duke Streets and parts of Dundonald Street. During the outage, scores of workers went home early causing a mad rush for transportation at City Gate and at various taxi stands throughout the city. Businesses also closed their doors for security purposes.
Acting Commissioner of Police James Philbert said as a result of the power outages, he despatched both foot and mobile police patrols “to ensure no security breaches took place.”
Police officers who were assigned to desk duty were also deployed on the streets.
Although there was power at City Gate, officers of the Traffic Branch were deployed to the hub to ensure law and order as commuters “made a mad rush for transportation to get to their respective homes.” There were excessively long lines for buses especially for the San Fernando and Chaguanas route. Persons waiting for maxi taxis were impatient and hostile.
A PTSC official, who wished not to be identified, said an electrical outage should not have happened. “There are too many qualified engineers and electricians for this to happen. I cannot imagine what would have happened if electricity went here.”
At about 7 pm, a TTEC crew was feverishly working on a transformer at the corner of Hart and Frederick Streets in attempt to restore electricity to lower Frederick Street where the street lights were non-functional.
