Burnt poles in Wide Bay Burnett prompts warning from Ergon

Acting Area Manager Simon Duff said the incidents highlighted the dangers landholders conducting burns could pose if the fires get too close to power poles and other electrical assets.

“Crews responded to outages impacting customers at Abercorn, Cynthia and Eidsvold on Monday afternoon and another at Gayndah and Mundubbera early Tuesday morning,” Simon said.

“Most property owners leave their burn-off until a bit later, but this is a timely reminder that landholders need to be careful when they’re using fire on their properties, especially where there are power poles and other electrical assets.”

Landholders can also use the lookupandlive.com App to locate poles on their property.

Simon said more than 110 customers were impacted while crews replaced the poles and made sure it was safe to restore supply.

“In addition to the inconvenience of widespread power disruptions, fallen powerlines can cause serious injury or even death to people and livestock that come into contact with it,” he said

“To minimise the chances of fire damaging power poles and property, property owners should trim or clear any long grass, foliage and rubbish within a five-metre radius of electricity infrastructure and remain with any controlled burns they carry out.”

For more information around bushfire preparedness head to https://www.fire.qld.gov.au/

In the event of a fire always call triple zero.