CHENNAI: Residents of Pattabiram, parts of Avadi's Kamaraj Nagar, Sekkadu and Mittanamali faced a power outage on Saturday night for over nine hours after a fire destroyed two power transformers at a substation.

According to TANGEDCO officials, two 16-MVA power transformers at 110 KV Pattabiram Substation caught fire around 11 pm leading to a power outage.

Amid the severe heatwave, the residents were forced to sweat it out the whole night, as putting off the fire took a long time. Officials said that the reason for the fire is yet to be ascertained. 

"However, they ruled out overloading. Though the ACs usage has increased during the summer, the substation did not face any overloading issues," the official added.

Former minister and Avadi MLA Nasar, who visited the substation, told reporters that he spoke to the Electricity Minister and TANGEDCO officials to take steps to restore the power supply at the earliest. Later, TANGEDCO CMD Rajesh Lakhoni also visited the SS.

A TANGEDCO official said that out of the three power transformers at the substation, two were completely damaged. "We restored power through back feeding from Kamaraj Nagar substation, " the official said, adding that they requested residents not to use air conditioners for a day until new transformers are erected at the Pattabiram substation.