A fire that involved a ground-mounted transformer resulted in more than 180 customers losing power last week, some for as long as 13 hours.

The Royal Gazette was informed of the outage by a reader, who said the road had to be dug up and that it appeared to be “a major event”.

Responding to questions on the incident, Shelly Leman, a managing director at Belco, said: “On September 12, a fire involving a ground-mounted transformer occurred in the vicinity of Tulo Lane and St John’s Road, resulting in a power outage affecting 183 customers.

“Our crews responded immediately to the scene and began restoration efforts.

“Investigation revealed that the fault originated in an underground cable. To complete repairs, we engaged a contractor to excavate and access the damaged cable.

“The repair work also required the installation of a replacement transformer.

“These complex restoration activities took approximately 13 hours to complete.

“Power was successfully restored to the majority of affected customers shortly after repair work began. However, 50 customers remained without power for the full duration of the outage due to the extent of the damage.”

Belco thanked customers for their patience and understanding, saying its crews “worked diligently to restore power safely”.