The main electrical substation for the St Francis area blew up yesterday evening after 7 pm and there was no electricity for about six hours in the entire area of St Francis Bay, Cape St Francis and Oyster Bay.

Residents reported to this paper that they saw big lights flashing and some heard popping noises, while one some reported the sky in the vicinity lit up like fireworks. Then the station looked like it was on fire and burnt for some while.

Lights came on about 2 am. No one in authority appeared to know yesterday what caused the station to be blown up and so residents were literally in the dark for several hours and told by one of the area’s councillors “not to comment” and that authorities were working on it.

It was reported that Eskom logged a fault and “residents must expect indefinite outage” Some observers anticipated it could be days before the substation could be completely restored, but fortunately it was hours, not days and it was night time.

The municipality electrical team and Eskom electrical team fixed the problem and they are to be thanked for switching the lights back on.

St Francis Chronicle will provide our readers and members of our groups with an update as soon as we hear anything further. We welcome feedback.