Probe into Majuba fire to start after facility cools down: Eskom

The fire at the Mpumalanga based coal-fired power station started in the incline conveyer belt system from the rail offloading facility.

An investigation into a fire at the Majuba power station will commence after the facility has cooled down, said Eskom.

"We will have to wait for the facility to cool down in order to start a forensic investigation to determine the cause of the fire. Once it is safe, the investigation will commence," said the power utility.

The fire at the Mpumalanga based coal-fired power station started in the incline conveyer belt system from the rail offloading facility.

No injuries were sustained in the fire that started at 3 pm on Wednesday.

"The incident does impact on our coal delivery to Majuba Power Station which was primarily done via rail. We will use road delivery to offset the absence of rail transportation for the duration of the recovery of the damaged infrastructure," said the utility.

However, the power station's coal stock is healthy at over 50 days of stock.

"We expect that the reclamation from the coal stock and road delivery will be adequate to sustain Majuba burn," said Eskom.

Earlier this week, the power utility said the probability of load shedding is low this week, despite a constrained and vulnerable system.

(With Inputs from South African Government Press Release)