Staff Reporter
Thousands of consumers in and around the town of Vrede have been without electricity since morning after a fire started by a farmer to create a fire break went out of control and destroyed Eskom infrastructure in the area.
A statement issued by Eskom’s Titi Makhetha from the Free State regional office said over 5 000 consumers have been affected by the fault which occurred at about 8am on Thursday.
“A fault on the Standerton-Vrede Munic 88 kV feeder has resulted in the loss of electricity supply to Vrede . . .” read part of the statement.
“Eskom structures collapsed due to a fire started by a farmer when he tried to create a fire break.
“A total of 5 251 customers have been affected, and this includes customers in Thembalihle township and all rural customers feeding from the Ascent-Bethal, Ascent-Rietpoort, Ascent-Mamre, Vrede-Memel, Vrede-Roadside, Vrede Steeldrift and Vrede-Warden Rural 22kVlines,” the statement added.
Makhetha said Eskom technicians are on site and it is estimated that the restoration will be completed in the early hours of Friday.
Recently, farmers in different parts of the province lost an estimated 70 000 hectares of grazing land to veld fires.
The veld fires damaged game, livestock and buildings, amongst others.
One farmer just outside Bloemfontein lost about 1 000 hectares of pasture and a total 100 livestock from the veld fires.
At that time, authorities urged farmers to be vigilant and avoid starting fires due to the dry weather conditions and strong winds in some areas.
