Major power outage in West

A fire at the Westmoorings sub-station yesterday resulted in power failure to homes and business places in Diego Martin, Westmoorings, Carenage, Chaguaramas and parts of Petit Valley. Several business places were forced to send employees home early because of the power outage. The outage also resulted in several homes being without a supply of water. The fire was quickly extinguished by officers from the Four Roads Fire Station who received a call at 2.34 pm that the number two transformer at the Westmoorings sub-station was on fire. The sub-station is situated opposite the West Mall entrance to Diego Martin.

Power was expected to be restored around 6 pm yesterday. A release from the Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission revealed that the cause of the fire was unknown and an investigation has been launched into the matter. Police officers from the Four Roads, West End, and St James Police Stations were unaffected by the outage since the stations are equipped with generators. Officers at the Carenage Police Station told Newsday that the generator at the station had not been working since last year and efforts to have it replaced, or repaired have been futile.

However, angry residents from Diamond Vale and surrounding areas told Newsday that within recent weeks they have been experiencing a continuous loss of electricity to their homes due to blown transformers. Only certain houses on streets, far apart, were affected during these particular power failures. They blamed unauthorised use of heavy machinery in the area for the cause of the trouble. The angry residents claimed that repeated calls were made to TTEC about the situation, but the transformers continued to blow. They described the situation as unusual since the affected houses were far apart. “In one street four houses would not have electricity,” a resident stated. “While all the other houses around would have power. The same thing would be repeated two streets away. What is the explanation for this?” he asked.