‘Bursts of flames’ major power outage in Mermaid Beach

Mermaid Beach residents have woken to multiple “explosions” on Thursday morning, plunging the city’s most affluent households into darkness.

Mermaid Beach residents have woken to multiple “explosions” on Thursday morning, plunging the city’s most affluent households into darkness.

At around 6am on Albatross and Hedges avenues, locals reported electricity poles “blowing up”, with a mass power outage currently affecting the area.

Power outage in Mermaid. pic: supplied

“At 6am it was popping off loud noises with bursts of flames,” a Mermaid Beach resident said.

“The power lines down the street blew up as well.

“I had power the whole time that was happening — I must have been on a different circuit — but I’ve now lost power as Ergon is there now working on it.”

The resident said it was not the first time it had happened in the area.

“That power line has blown up twice since I’ve lived here,” she said.

“Last time about four years ago in was the middle of the night.”

She said a neighbour had experienced the Albatross and Hedges pole “blowing out” on three separate occasions.

According to the Energex outage finder, 196 customers are affected across six streets.

An Energex spokesperson said they had a crew on scene now working on restoring power.

“It was a pole fire on Albatross Avenue and our crew is there,” he said.

“Pole fires can happen for various reasons and it’s usually some kind of short circuit.

“Sometimes it happens after rain — water might get into the equipment and so pole fires aren’t absolutely rare.”

It is unknown when power will be restored to the affected areas.