Blackout in Port Harcourt as fire guts power sub-station

Some areas in Port Harcourt, the Rivers state capital, are currently experiencing total blackout following the fire that gutted the Injection sub-station that supplies electricity to Diobu area of the town.
The incident, according to the Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company (PHED), was caused by the fire outbreak that emanated from a dump site, near Paburk One.
PHED’s Manager for Corporate Communications, Mr John Onyi, who disclosed in Port Harcourt, said that the fire also destroyed its security post, telecommunication mast and other facilities.
He urged the affected residents to bear with the company, adding that power would be restored to the affected area after the impact had been assessed.
Meanwhile, the state’s Commissioner for Environment, Mrs. Roseline Konya, has said that investigation had been launched to ascertain the cause of the fire.
The commissioner assured that anyone or group found culpable would be arrested and prosecuted.
She said that the state government could not have ordered the used tyre dump site to be set ablaze, saying that this was why the government ordered that the fire be put out to contain its spread.
“The smoke is still on; but the fire has been put out by firemen. The burning of tyres is all part of what is contributing to the soot in the state,” she said.
But an official of the Vigilante Group of Nigeria, Miracle Harry, claimed that the dumpsite might have been set on fire by people who specialised in extracting for sale copper wires and aluminium metal from tyres .
He said: “On Dec 31, this set of people set fire on a small used tyre dump site at Njemanze Street in Port Harcourt. The fire spread and burnt a petrol tanker truck to ashes. We arrested the people and handed them over to the police,”