Thousands of residents were left in the dark on Friday night after the Brakfontein substation in Centurion south of Pretoria went up in flames after being struck by lightning.

“It was during the heavy downpour and thunderstorm which was accompanied by a tremendous flash of lightning that two transformers at the substation caught fire‚ impacting on the distribution of electricity to households and businesses supplied by the Brakfontein substation‚” said City of Tshwane spokesperson Lindela Mashigo.

Fire and emergency services had responded promptly to the incident and were on the scene until Saturday morning‚ Mashigo said. 

Areas affected included Thatchfield‚ The Reeds‚ Rooihuiskraal‚ Heuweloord‚ Amberfield and Wierdapark.

It was not immediately known when power would be restored.

“Currently‚ the city is occupying itself with assessment of infrastructural needs. This will enable the city to commit the necessary resources and give the estimated power restoration time.

“The immediate focus of the city now will be to ensure provision and restoration of power supply to the affected residents and businesses. It is only after the affected customers have electricity and infrastructure repairs done that we will be able to establish and disclose the cost of damages‚” said Mashigo‚ adding that the city apologised for the inconvenience caused by the outage.