Fears over power lines, poles

A group of Alexandra residents is worried power lines and poles running through Bridge Hill are in such poor condition they could cause fires and even electrocution.

The residents are so concerned they have invited Aurora Energy chief executive Dr Richard Fletcher to meet them and inspect the power infrastructure going up Bridge Hill through Jolendale Park towards State Highway 8.

An Aurora spokesman has replied: "We would be more than happy to meet with the residents on site'', and offered to initiate contact between the parties.

Bridge Hill residents Ken Churchill, Geoff McHardy, Glenda Thompson, Ingrid Mueller and Chris Aquilina-Roberts say they "utterly reject'' the recent explanation of an Aurora manager that a fire caused by a power line near Jolendale Park last month was caused by a tree falling on to the power line.

They say the tree they believe Aurora is referring to fell some time ago, away from the power lines, and the break in the power lines was, in fact, 30m away from the tree. They say the fire was caused by the power line "just falling'' on to the ground because the lines in the area are in such poor condition.

Mr McHardy was walking on Aronui Reserve land, near the boundary of Jolendale Park, when he came across the fallen power line and noticed the February 4 fire. He called 111 and fire crews extinguished the fire quickly. It burnt about 75sqm of vegetation.

Mr Churchill said he was angry Aurora was claiming the fire was caused by a fallen tree, but the fire was a symptom "of a bigger issue''.

He said the power infrastructure going through Bridge Hill, including through the Aronui Reserve and Jolendale Park, was in such poor condition he was worried more power lines or poles would fall, potentially causing fires or electrocution.

"This area is full of people, including lots of children. We're really worried about more power lines falling down, it's a real danger.''

He said examples of the dangerous infrastructure included leaning power poles, multiple red, orange or blue tagged poles, a pole being supported by a "stay'' cable only tied to a boulder, poles without possum guards, and sagging power lines.

But the residents' greatest concern was the power lines through Bridge Hill were "grossly overloaded'', said Mr Churchill, who believed the power infrastructure dated back to about 1950.

The Otago Daily Times sent a series of questions about the Bridge Hill infrastructure to Aurora, but the response from a spokesman did not answer any of the questions directly, including how many households the Bridge Hill power lines serviced.

The response said: "We take any incident involving a line down or fire extremely seriously, which is why we are in the process of designing a new line through Jolendale Park to reduce the risk in future. The post-event investigation assessed the probable cause based on available information, including on-site inspection.''

The planning, design, construction and commissioning of the new line would take "a period of months'', it said.