5 ms·

What is the cause?

• jacquesm 8y ago
  Could be any number of causes: - overload + faulty breakers (or no breakers...) - old age insulation failure - coolant depletion - overvoltage due to lightning strikes elsewhere
• jdietrich 8y ago
  Theft, mainly. A transformer is a big lump of copper, but even the oil is meaningfully valuable in a low-income country. There are reports of widespread transformer oil theft across Africa and South-East Asia. Draining a transformer of oil is easy, it'll earn you a few naira and it'll inevitably lead to the transformer burning itself out in spectacular fashion. https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/12/thieves-fry-kenya-power-grid-fast-food-2014122884728785480.html https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/12/thieves-f... http://www.eskom.co.za/AboutElectricity/PubSafety/Pages/Transformer.aspx http://www.eskom.co.za/AboutElectricity/PubSafety/Pages/Tran... https://english.mathrubhumi.com/news/kerala/theft-of-oil-from-transformers-electricity-department-in-shock--1.3050138 https://english.mathrubhumi.com/news/kerala/theft-of-oil-fro...
  • robocat 8y ago
    Jeepers - they use the stolen oil to deep fry food! Why don't they add some things to: (a) make it taste horrid, (b) make it smell horrendous when burnt?