PAKENHAM OFFICER
Thursday, 25 October 2018
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JEWEL IN THE CROWN
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PAGE 13
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‘Off with a bang’ Power was restored by 8pm that night. 186645 Picture: STEWART CHAMBERS
Power to Pakenham Central Marketplace was cut for around an hour, as well as to surrounding businesses. “The centre didn’t go down for as long as the rest of the town which was good,” EB Games employee Ryan said. “We had to close for most of the morning but we were back on by lunch time. “We had a lot of customers coming into the store saying they saw an explosion; the whole thing was very unusual for a Monday morning.” Maloney’s Pizza had an outage for most of the morning, but were back up and running in the afternoon, as well as Duffy and Simon Lawyers. Some residents were not so lucky; Kaz Pig-
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gott’s washing machine blew up in the middle of a load. “In ten minutes my whole laundry was flooded with water,” Ms Piggott said. “The washing machine was only four weeks out of warranty too, I couldn’t believe it. I was in tears. “We’re a low-income family, and washing machines aren’t cheap at the best of times. For this to happen right before Christmas is pretty devastating, but we’ve set up a rent to buy to get a new one.” After calling LG and AusNet, the mother of three was advised to put a claim in to AusNet. “When I got in touch with AusNet they said
that a number of claims had already been lodged in the area from the power surge - apparently it cooked a number of solar panels. “I personally didn’t know you could claim through AusNet and I’m sure there are a few people out there who lost a few things and don’t know they can claim. “I’ve been told it might take a few months to process, I’m hoping it won’t take too long.” Ms Piggott said she and her neighbours heard the explosion all the way from Gum Tree Circuit. “It sounded like a bomb had gone off; it was unbelievable how loud it was.” Some residents lost power from as far as Bald Hill Road.
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Part of Pakenham’s CBD was sectioned off for upwards of 10 hours following a power line schism on the corner of John Street at James Street. Emergency services attended the incident, described as an “explosion” by witnesses, just before 10am on Monday 22 October. “I was in my office upstairs, looking out the window when the power line went off with a bang,” OBrien Real Estate director Rod Capuano said. “After the bang we saw a huge puff of smoke and cables hanging down. It was loud enough that you could hear it through the windows. “The power came on for a moment, dimmed and then it looks like something else let go further up. It looks like the top cables broke and got burnt in half, hanging down below the lower ones. “There were people walking underneath at the time and those lines have 20,000-30,000 volts running through them.” One of those people was Sinuon Ny. “I was under there when it happened, but we are OK,” she said. A CFA spokesperson said three vehicles responded to the incident, which was under control by 9.57am. The scene was handed back to AusNet Services, who were able to restore the power to the 62 affected customers by 8pm that night. “The line had broken mid-span which made it difficult to repair,” an AusNet spokesperson said. “We had to restrict the aerial bundled cable and re-string that part of the line. “AusNet would like to thank customers for their patience and apologise for any inconvenience caused.”
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By Kyra Gillespie
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