Power cut to 1000, supermarket closes

An electrical failure in Oamaru yesterday triggered a short-lived outage for 1000 people and forced a local New World to close for the day.

New World Oamaru checkout supervisor and duty manager Maree Bowles said she was on her way to work just after 11am yesterday when the piece of electrical equipment ‘‘went bang''.

She heard from her colleagues there was ‘‘a huge big bang, a huge big plume of black smoke'' and flames coming out of the box.

The store closed while Network Waitaki worked on fixing the switch, and planned on reopening once power was restored.

But that did not happen until about 6pm, at which point there was no point opening again, she said.

Network Waitaki network manager David Paterson said about 1000 people lost power for about 40 minutes.

Only the supermarket was without power for as long as it had been, because it was fed directly from the switch, he said.

Fire Service shift manager Brent Dunn said Oamaru firefighters were briefly in attendance, but the flames had gone out before they arrived.

-carla.green@odt.co.nz

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