VINLEC to shell out over $100,000 in repair costs from weekend fires

St Vincent Electricity Services (VINLEC)’s Engineering Manager, Ricky Wright, is urging greater responsibility among residents when lighting fires, as these fires sometimes cause damage to the utility company’s poles.

“The cost of repairs is approaching $130,000. We don’t have the conditions here for spontaneous fires. The fires in that area were a result of human negligence or spiteful acts,” Wright told SEARCHLIGHT.

His comments were made following a recent spate of fires.

The VINLEC team has faced a challenging past five days, responding to four fires that threatened their poles. Wright recalled that last weekend there was a fire on the slopes of Fort Charlotte. One before the entrance to the Ottley Hall shipyard resulted in the loss of three of their poles. This fire spread over the hill to Lowman’s leeward. There was also a fire at upper New Montrose on Sunday, April 6, that resulted in the loss of six poles along a transmission line that connects the Cane Hall and Lowman’s Bay power stations through Kingstown. On Wednesday, April 9, there was a fire in the McKies Hill area that threatened some of VINLEC’s poles connected to their 11 and 33-kilovolt feeders.

“Those are like major arteries that transmit power from one power station to others or to load centres,” Wright explained, adding that one of the transmission lines that carries power to the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital was damaged during the weekend fires.

Click here to subscribe to read the full article in the E-paper!