Switches Blown By Lightning

Press, Volume C, Issue 29657, 30 October 1961, Page 12

Switches Blown By Lightning

(New Zealand Press Association) DUNEDIN, October 29. When lightning struck the main power line between Weston and Oamaru at 12 53 p.m. today, it blew out switch controls, the Electricity Department’s Weston sub-station and a large liquid fuse in the Waitaki Electric Power Board’s power-house at Oamaru.

Both buildings were unoccupied at the time. There were vivid flashes and explosions at the two points, and a large area of North Otago had a power cut. The failure occurred at the end of a spectacular electrical storm which was accompanied by sheets of rain and hail. About 0 6in of rain fell in half an hour. The area around Weston was brilliantly lit up by the flash. A piece of fibre board was blasted from the roof of the building housing the switch equipment, a steel roller door was torn from its guides, a window was Smashed, oil was splashed around the building, and gear was hurled from one end of the room to the other. Smoke and flames blanketed the interior, and the Oamaru Volunteer Fire Brigade was called. Sub-station attendants had the outbreak almost under control, however, when the brigade arrived. The explosion occurred only seven minutes before the chief operator at the

sub-station, Mr G. S. Whiting, was due at the building after lunch to take routine readings. Mr Whiting said he had seen from his nearby home a tremendous flash of light after the lightning struck. ‘‘Had I been in the office in the building I would probably have been all right,” he said. “But," he said, surveying the disorder in the main room, “if if had been in here?” A stretcher was destroyed by the fire, and equipment, including a clock, was badly scorched and blackened. The oil circuit breaker which was the pivot of the explosion, held about 20 gallons of oil. The sub-station switched on to an alternative line to restore power to the affected area. Country lines were livened again about 2.30 p.m., and the Oamaru Fire Brigade was called to the Oamaru power house on its return from Weston. A liquid fuse had blown, and there was a flashover between insulators. Repairs were soon made there but the damaged switch at Weston will be a longer job. The power board also attended a fault caused by lightning in the MahenoKakanui area.