Sunday 9 February 2025

The Department for Energy and Mining has been alerted to a power outage caused by a fire at Oodnadatta’s fire station yesterday (in the afternoon of Saturday 8 February).

The quick actions of Cowell Electrics local power station operator and rapid responses from CFS and SAPOL controlled the fire and minimised the damage caused, but there has been damage to the station’s generation capacity. Power supplies to Oodnadatta were disrupted, but have been restored.

Back up generation is en route to Oodnadatta and will be connected in as soon as practical, noting that damage to the existing infrastructure could make this more difficult than usual.

A period of very hot weather is approaching, and it is likely that there will be temporary outages while restoration works take place. Work needed to clean and make safe the area affected by fire might also contribute to outages.

In anticipation of this, residents of Oodnadatta and the Dunjiba Aboriginal Community are advised to seek respite at public facilities where on-site generators will continue to provide cooling if homes are affected by outages during periods of very hot weather.

Because of these same circumstances the local school will be closed on Monday, but will open Tuesday, pending expected installation of further generation backup and actions taken to reduce electricity demand.