Copper thieves leave 1,000 homes without power

Daring thieves stole thousands of euro worth of live copper wire in a raid in South Galway at the weekend.

Some 1,000 homes including in Kilcolgan, Gort and Craughwell were without power for over two hours on Sunday night as the ESB dealt with the theft.

Many people were returning home from the hurling in Thurles to find their power had been cut between 7.45pm and 9.30pm, when it was restored.

ESB Networks has confirmed that eight spans of live copper electrical network were stolen. The company said the theft occurred along the Gort/Kilcolgan 38kV line on Saturday evening.

“As a safety precaution, another line was temporarily switched off on Sunday evening to determine if further damage was sustained during the theft. This resulted in approximately 1,000 customers losing power from 7.45pm until 9.30pm on Sunday evening.

“We apologise to customers affected by Sunday’s outage. However, ESB Networks has a duty of care when it comes to the public’s safety and thorough checks must be carried out following incidences of theft by third parties,” a spokesperson said.

Gardaí are investigating, and members of the public who notice suspicious activity around electricity network should call the ESB on its 24-hour emergency hotline on 1850 372 999 and Gardaí at Gort Garda station on (091) 636400.

This is the latest in a series of thefts of copper wire on the Gort-Kilcolgan 38kV line recently.

It was estimated that up to 15,000 metres of copper wire was stolen in raids over the past few months in South Galway.

The company said it is a dangerous activity, and results in widespread disruption, as the ESB assesses and fixes the damage.

“We apologise to customers that may experience sudden and unexpected  loss of supply due to these incidences; not only are the perpetrators of these crimes putting their lives at risk, they are also endangering the lives of members of the public by leaving potentially unsafe network after them and interrupting supply to critical services. It also causes significant inconvenience to local residents while the repair works are carried out by ESB Network crews.

“We are actively working with the Gardaí to tackle this activity and are vigorously pursuing every feasible means of protecting the electricity network. The public have an important part to play in helping put a stop to this type of theft,” the ESB said.