MAJOR POWER FAILURE

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28794, 15 January 1959, Page 8

MAJOR POWER FAILURE

Explosion In City Sub-Station

The centre of Christchurch was plunged into darkness last evening when switchgear in the Armagh street sub-station blew out.

Water which leaked through the roof of the two-storey building short-circuited the 11,000 volt transformers and switching gear, started a small oil fire and blew out manhole covers on the street.

Power may be restored in most areas by breakfast time this morning.

Earlier in the evening lights flickered all over Canterbury as a violent thunderstorm passed to the west of the city and heavy rain fell in many districts.

There were two terrific explosions as the high tension gear blew out, and the windows of the substation glowed red.

When the building, and much of the city, was blacked out, the engineer-manager of the Municipal Electricity Department, Mr G. H. Battersby, fell through an open manhole on to the concrete floor 14ft below.

He was at the station because of earlier faults in the high tension lines into Christchurch, and walked into a cloakroom to hang up his overcoat. The wooden manhole cover has been left off earlier in the evening. He was admitted to the Christchurch Hospital after nearly three hours in the casualty department. No report on his injuries was available early this morning, but his condition was reported to be satisfactory. The telephone switchboard at the M.E.D. was almost Swamped with calls as bakers, hospitals and other institutions, utility plants and factories on .round-the-clock shifts asked when power would be restored.

Meanwhile the department’s electrical engineer (Mr W. G. Johnston) called in every available man to begin repairing the plant. The fire which started when oil from the smashed circuit breakers spilt on the floor and ignited in the explosion was a small one, and the greater dangers to firemen were the possibility of a further explosion or the spread of noxious gases.

The moment the power was cut off manually from the transformer station they moved in, wearing breathing apparatus, and extinguished the fire with one carbon dioxide set.

Outside, in Armagh street, a crowd gathered. Many of them were cinema patrons who shortly before had filed out into streets lit only by the headlamps of passing cars. Twelve policemen, some of them called off their beats, moved in to control the spectators, and cordoned off the street. They were joined by several Christchurch City Council traffic department officers who helped handle the traffic. When the fire engine’s transmitter was unable to raise the Central Fire Station one of the traffic officers moved his car alongside and that radio was used to maintain two-way communication. All available staff —probably about 50 men—were called in to

deal wtih the breakdown. For three hours they worked by the light of petrol lamps, until emergency plant, some of it lent by the Ministry of Works, was brought in and portable floodlamps could be used.

The power failure was the climax of a thunderstorm which broke over Christchurch and a wide area to the north shortly before 9 p.m. After steady rain, which began in the city about 8 p.m., a few flashes of lightning and growls of thunder heralded a sudden heavy downpour which was almost tropical in its intensity. Persons in the city streets and Cathedral square scurried for shelter and there was the usual rush on taxis.

The downpour lasted about half an hour, having eased off to light rain when the power failure occurred.

There was only a brief power failure in western and southern suburbs, from Riccarton to Cashmere. Lights flickered several times, then went out for about five minutes, and came on again. Many a telephone conversation between residents in different suburbs of the city must have been interrupted as those in suburbs worst affected by the blackout left their telephones to investigate their darkened domestic situations.

Power in Lyttelton was off for only three minutes but with electric trains held up on the Christchurch side of the hills, transport to the port was disorganised, and train services ran late. The Dunedin-Christchurch relief express arrived 32 minutes late and the Invercargill-Lyttel-ton train was 28 minutes late.

The 9.15 p.m. train for Lyttelton left 31 minutes late, and the train scheduled to leave at 10.5 p.m. left at 10.13 p.m. A railways spokesman said the power failure affected train services for only 30 minutes. The power went off at 9.10 p.m. and was restored at 9.41 p.m. He said the delays were caused by the blackout upsetting signalling equipment.