By Bampia James Bundu
Live wires on Sunday evening cut from a faulty electricity pole in the east of Freetown, killing two people on the spot and leaving 25 others seriously injured and hospitalized at the Satellite Hospital at Rokupa.
Kadiatu Tunkara, 14, a class 6 pupil of the Sierra Leone Muslim Brotherhood primary school at Wellington and Sylvia Beatrice, a market woman, were electrocuted in a crowded business area at the Brima Lane market, east of Freetown.
An eye witness, Ibrahim Sheriff, told Politico that at around 6:30 PM on Sunday one of the high-tension hydro electric cables sparked before it exploded and dropped into the crowd, wreaking havoc.
Sheriff said Tunkara and Madam Beatrice were seated very close to the transformer when the cable exploded.
According to Pa Alimamy Kamara, who resides in the area, such explosions happen often.
“We have reported this matter to some of the workers who usually come here to service the transformer but they have been giving us all sorts of excuses”, he said, adding that more people would have been killed if it were on a weekday.
He called on the National Power Authority to investigate the cause of the explosion that led to the killing of two people and fix the problem “once and for all”.
One of the victims, who identified herself as Fatmata Sankoh, said they stayed close to the transformer and were used to selling their goods under the high tension cable.
“I was sitting in front of my door when the cable exploded and before I knew it there was current all over the house and all over me” she said, adding: “I passed out and only woke up in the hospital”. She said she was in pain and had since not been able use here feet well.
A bereaved mother, Kadiatu Tunkara said she was with her daughter when the incident occurred and everybody was running for their life when they realized what her daughter had been electrocuted.
“Who do I hold responsible now? What will I do? The government and NPA are responsible”, she said.
Public Relations Officer of NPA, Victor Winston Clark said most of the cables they used were at 11,000 voltages which could not adequately absorb the power and had therefore caused problems such as the events of Sunday.
He said they had long warned people against coming or sitting close to those vulnerable areas under the high tension cables because of the risk.
Clark confirmed that they were taking care of 10 people at the Satellite Hospital at Rokupa and would also take responsibility for the burial of the two deceased victims.
He assured that they were planning to change most of their cables to 33,000-voltage ones by January next year to enable the current flow perfectly.
(C) Politico 19/11/13
