A Twizel farmer's celebration for the Rugby World Cup proved costly when he cut the electricity supply to 560 consumers last weekend.
That has prompted North Otago lines company Network Waitaki to warn people they need to take care, at all times, when around power lines or working near underground cables.
It also caused complaints to Network Waitaki about damage to electrical appliances from the outage, chief executive Graham Clark said yesterday.
The farmer, Doug McIntyre, put a flagpole and flags on a travelling irrigator next to State Highway 8 near Twizel, but they failed to clear a 33kV line owned by Network Waitaki, shorting it and cutting electricity for between 23 and 143 minutes.
"It's unfortunate. It's made my world cup celebration flags quite an expensive exercise," Mr McIntyre said yesterday.
He said he would get a bill from Network Waitaki for $2350 to fix and restore the supply, but had also been told there had been complaints about telephones being damaged.
Mr Clark said Network Waitaki would seek compensation from the farmer.
The damage followed an incident in Auckland recently, where a person digging a hole to put up a flagpole cut an underground cable. About 70m of it had to be replaced, and bunting was flung into the crosswires of a power pole, cutting supply to 50 houses for about an hour.
Mr McIntyre said when the flagpole, New Zealand flag and silver fern was put on the irrigator, it was "well clear" of the line. But it was "put a little higher" and when it was being moved closer to the road it failed to clear the lines by about 15cm.
He also has a 1.2 km-long travelling irrigator next to SH8 with flags from all the Rugby World Cup teams and some silver fern flags, which is catching the attention of many tourists.
"They look quite good and a lot of people are stopping to take photos," he said.
Mr Clark said people putting up flags or bunting for the Rugby World Cup needed to take care near power lines and cables.
"There is a safety issue, not only for people working in close proximity to power lines but potentially for others," he said.
