Fire guts TCN station, throws Benin City into darkness

 

A partial system collapse arising from a fire outbreak that gutted a transformer at the Benin City Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) station, has compounded the problem of power black-out for residents of the Edo State capital.

Following the fire incident which occurred on Sunday afternoon, some areas in the city and its environs that used to have nine-hours-a-day-electricity supply, did not get power supply, even as‎ the cause of the fire could not be ascertained at press time.

Officials of the Edo State Fire Service and other fire service stations were at the premises battling to put out the fire.

It was learnt that it was a transformer servicing some areas in Benin City and its environs that went up in flames.

Spokesman for the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC), Mr. Tayo Adekunle, could not be reached for comments on the areas affected, but‎ a staff who declined to give his identity said all areas connected to the Benin TCN are affected due to a partial system collapse arising from the fire incident.

‎He explained that the TCN sub station is inter-connected to other TCN locations across the country, adding that the specific locations affected by the fire were yet to be known but that major parts of Edo State would be affected  by the outage.