Chaos In Victoria

Wild fires trip power breakers, and send the whole place to crazy-land:

VICTORIANS face days of power bans - including being forced to turn off airconditioners in heatwave conditions - after the state was plunged into chaos yesterday when bushfires cut the main electricity transmission line between Melbourne and New South Wales.

The shutdown triggered blackouts across the state that left more than half a million homes and businesses without electricity, blanked out 1200 traffic lights and disrupted train services.

... The bushfire that cut the transmission line near Benalla, in northeast Victoria, destroyed seven homes at Toombullup. It was one of dozens that flared across the state in 40C heat. A house in the Brisbane Ranges, to the west of Melbourne, was also destroyed.

The power failure, which hit large parts of Melbourne, including the central business district, as well as the regional centres of Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo, was caused when smoke and ash from the fire tripped circuit breakers on the transmission line just after 4pm.

The sudden loss of 2000MW of power - a quarter of the state's supply - caused an automatic load-shedding system to kick in, shutting down power to large areas of Victoria.

There were reports of people caught in lifts in buildings that did not have backup generators. A Melbourne ambulance spokesman said 10 people had been rescued from a lift in one city building.

Afternoon Melbourne peak-hour traffic was thrown into turmoil as more than 1200 traffic lights failed and boom gates at train crossings malfunctioned. Public transport was further disrupted as trains were slowed to a crawl because of reduced voltages in overhead lines.

The cost of the blackout is expected to run into the tens of millions of dollars, with factories forced to shut production lines, businesses sending employees home early and restaurants unable to open for the evening.

... The latest power failure hit as Victoria was experiencing a heavier than normal demand for electricity to run airconditioners and fans, and was drawing extra power from NSW through the vital interconnector transmission lines.

Acting Premier John Thwaites last night said the transmission line could not be reconnected until authorities were sure no one was on the ground beneath the lines, because of a risk they could be electrocuted.

He said plans to fly a Country Fire Authority aircraft over the line had been scuttled because of heavy smoke from the fire in the affected area.

"It appears at this stage it's not safe to turn the power back on," he said. "While we have been able to withdraw the Country Fire personnel, we are concerned there may be other people in the area and without being able to fly over the area we don't want to take any risks."