Five upazilas of Bogura and Naogaon were left without electricity early today due to a fire at a power substation in Kathaltali area of Naogaon city.
One lakh five thousand customers of Naogaon Sadar upazila, Atrai and Raninagar and Adamdighi, Shantahar upazilas of Bogura remain without electricity since morning.
The fire broke out at Nesco substation around 5:35 am, said Shafiul Islam, senior station officer of Naogaon Fire Service and Civil Defence.
"We managed to put out the fire within 15 minutes," he said.
The fire broke out inside a room of the station. "We had to enter the room by breaking doors and windows and cutting off the power supply," the fire service official said.
Monir Hossain, executive engineer of Nesco's Naogaon sales and distribution (north) division, said that he heard a loud bang around 5:30am.
Then he saw that one of the four rooms of the substation was on fire.
"The fire was on the power control panel. I first tried to douse it with a fire extinguisher, but it didn't work, so I informed fire service. They came quickly and put out the fire."
The power control panels, breakers and other equipment were burnt in the fire, that is why the power supply had to be cut off, the engineer said.
A technical team from Rajshahi visited the place. They are checking how long it will take to restore the power, he added.
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