Blast at Coloane power station injures one CEM employee

The power station in Coloane caught fire yesterday morning after a set of power generating units exploded at the station complex, wounding a male worker carrying out periodic inspections on-site.
The blaze, which broke out around 10:30 a.m, was extinguished within six minutes by the fire service that arrived on the scene shortly after. The G08 generation unit at the power station reportedly experienced a blast that spanned around a 600 square meter area, with a local 53-year-old staff member’s forearms left slightly burned by the resulting heat wave. The injured, surnamed Tong, was said to be performing a routine patrol when the explosion took place and was later hospitalized for medical treatment. He has already been discharged from the hospital.
A total of five workers were working at the station complex at the time when the incident happened. However, the other four staff managed to evacuate on their own.
The explosion, which happened without warning at the Coloane station yesterday, did not trigger any power outages or instabilities in power supply in the city, a senior manager from the public utility company CEM Ip Kam Veng proclaimed. The company representative told media that an inquiry into the damaged equipment would start later after the firemen have dealt with the complicated environment at the complex.
According to him, the set of power generating units has been running for 19 years, with 6 more to go before reaching the supposed 25-year operation limit of similar equipment. Those units have always been subject to annual inspections and maintenance. The electricity company had already filed a scheme to the government for equipment unit updates before the incident. Staff reporter