ENERGY Fiji Ltd has to spend as much as $20,000 on replacing power poles that are damaged by fires during the cane cutting season and to prevent such incidents, officers from the organisation will be going house to house, talking to canefarmers on the issue.
EFL chief executive officer Hasmukh Patel yesterday said a cane fire in Maururu in Ba yesterday caused partial damage to two power poles along EFL’s 33,000 volt transmission line that transmits power to Ba, Tavua and Rakiraki.
Mr Patel said replacement would take place next Sunday. He said during every cane cutting season, there were cases of people lighting fires which damaged the power poles, causing the EFL great distress in terms of replacing the damaged power poles.
According to Mr Patel, the EFL team was able to put out the fire but he pleaded with the canefarmers and the people who lived near main powerlines to be careful while lighting fires near them.
He said so far this year they had about four cases.
