Massive explosion and fire at ESB substation caused by copper wire thieves

RIGHTisRIGHT · 20-04-2016 08:56AM #1

THE MASSIVE FIRE at an ESB substation in Dublin that left thousands of homes without power on Sunday night was caused by thieves attempting to steal copper wire, the electricity company has said.
Around 120,000 customers had their supply cut off after a blaze broke out at a transformer in the substation on Kylemore Way, in the Inchicore area of west Dublin
The company said in a statement that an investigation has found the fire was caused by “third-party interference” at the site. The overall cost of the incident to the utility is estimated at up to €10 million, a spokesperson said.

Well that was Friday maybe if a description was released it might help jog peoples memories.
This event caused chaos in Tallaght Hospital on Monday because of computer systems going down.

Here is another case from two years ago.

THIEVES climbed an electricity pylon at a Wicklow farm and cut high voltage wires before stealing more than €100,000 worth of copper wire,enough to stretch the length of two football pitches.
Gardai have not yet made arrests in the case but are probing whether the crime was carried out by either eastern European criminals or a Traveller gang.Amazingly, no-one was injured during the course of the theft.
http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/thieves-scale-live-esb-pylon-to-steal-100k-of-copper-30589896.html

The_Valeyard · 20-04-2016 09:38AM

Pity they didn't get electrocuted.

SnakePlissken · 20-04-2016 09:40AM

Ah sure all dat copper was just lying there boss

vicwatson · 20-04-2016 09:42AM

Brave or insane these dudes

Dave0JV · 20-04-2016 09:42AM

I've heard of this happening in small locales but never anything quite this big :O

Allinall · 20-04-2016 09:44AM

It's shocking, Joe.

emo72 · 20-04-2016 09:46AM

That stuff was there since electrification. Lying there for about a hundred years. And all of a sudden gangs decide "Ya know lads, we'll have that". Mad. Obvious stuff that no one ever thought to steal, what's next?

SEPT 23 1989 · 20-04-2016 09:46AM

their rich culture adding so much to the tapestry of Irish life

Harry Palmr · 20-04-2016 09:58AM

They should be plugged in to the mains!

Flatzie_poo · 20-04-2016 10:00AM

vicwatson wrote: »

Brave or insane these dudes

Where along the lines does "bravery" come into stealing?

kneemos · 20-04-2016 10:16AM

Seems to be incredibly valuable stuff.

Alun · 20-04-2016 10:20AM

THIEVES climbed an electricity pylon at a Wicklow farm and cut high voltage wires before stealing more than €100,000 worth of copper wire,enough to stretch the length of two football pitches.

I thought most overhead HV cables were aluminium, not copper because of the weight?

fuerte1976 · 20-04-2016 10:23AM

kneemos wrote:

Seems to be incredibly valuable stuff.

It's invaluable if someone is kept alive in a hospital..

ted1 · 20-04-2016 10:25AM

RIGHTisRIGHT wrote: »

Well that was Friday maybe if a description was released it might help jog peoples memories.
This event caused chaos in Tallaght Hospital on Monday because of computer systems going down.

Here is another case from two years ago.

In all fairness critical systems should be on a UPS.

stoplooklisten · 20-04-2016 10:26AM

Is McNulty on the case? He's in charge of The Wire!

emo72 · 20-04-2016 10:28AM

when this happened before it was foreign gangs, so I wouldn't be too quick to assume it was our local lads. Just to be fair lads. Not that it makes a difference. Bad is bad the world over.

stoplooklisten · 20-04-2016 10:29AM

emo72 wrote: »

when this happened before it was foreign gangs, so I wouldn't be too quick to assume it was our local lads. Just to be fair lads. Not that it makes a difference. Bad is bad the world over.

English with Irish heritage or further afield? I don't remember what happened the last time.

emo72 · 20-04-2016 10:30AM

stoplooklisten wrote: »

English with Irish heritage or further afield? I don't remember what happened the last time.

Eastern European I thought. Very industrious workers.

Boom_Bap · 20-04-2016 10:39AM

Did they not watch Friday Night Lights and see how this ruined Tim Riggins?

Irish Stones · 20-04-2016 10:41AM

This happens on daily basis here in Italy.
Copper wires and roof gutters (are made of copper here) are stolen everyday.
In over 95% of cases the culprits are Eastern European people, namely Romanian, who don't care at all what those wires were supplying, a hospital, a railway, a neighbourhood.
Last news we had of such a fact was yesterday when the stolen wires left a highway tunnel dark and four people died in a car crash.
Last winter a whole railway line got halted for the same reason.
Luckily enough some of those thieves do not succed in their task and are found incinerated next to the wires they were going to steal

Another good material for thieves is cast iron, mainly used for manhole covers.
Three years ago I woke up on a morning a found out that all the covers in my street had been stolen overnight. Just imagine what would have happened is some car would drive over an uncovered manhole! :eek:

MajorMax · 20-04-2016 10:42AM

Culture, boss

kneemos · 20-04-2016 11:22AM

Irish Stones wrote: »

This happens on daily basis here in Italy.
Copper wires and roof gutters (are made of copper here) are stolen everyday.
In over 95% of cases the culprits are Eastern European people, namely Romanian, who don't care at all what those wires were supplying, a hospital, a railway, a neighbourhood.
Last news we had of such a fact was yesterday when the stolen wires left a highway tunnel dark and four people died in a car crash.
Last winter a whole railway line got halted for the same reason.
Luckily enough some of those thieves do not succed in their task and are found incinerated next to the wires they were going to steal

Another good material for thieves is cast iron, mainly used for manhole covers.
Three years ago I woke up on a morning a found out that all the covers in my street had been stolen overnight. Just imagine what would have happened is some car would drive over an uncovered manhole! :eek:

Apparently the Romanians have adopted the method of waiting awhile for them to hook the cable to the back of the Jeep and turning the power back on.

Fairly extreme,but they be crazy over there.

FTA69 · 20-04-2016 11:28AM

Alun wrote: »

I thought most overhead HV cables were aluminium, not copper because of the weight?

They're both I think, armoured cable. A lot of the time they burn the aluminium off in a pyre before retrieving the copper.

gramar · 20-04-2016 11:34AM

"The company said in a statement that an investigation has found the fire was caused by “third-party interference” at the site. The overall cost of the incident to the utility is estimated at up to €10 million, a spokesperson said"

Sounds like someone was tinkering around with those wires.

Foxhound38 · 20-04-2016 11:55AM

What a beautiful display of a noble culture... boss

diomed · 20-04-2016 11:56AM

If they are stealing, they are selling, and someone is buying.
Are they stealing to order?

conorhal · 20-04-2016 12:22PM

Have we licenced scrap merchants, banned them from making cash payments and required them to register their purchases and document both seller and the providence of their goods?
No, of course not, which is why a lot of this practice continues, because Ireland doesn't do joined up thinking, proper and enforced regulation or care for tackling problems at their root cause.
Nor has revenue bothered to crawl up the arse, with a microscope, of everybody living in Rathkeale driving a 161 D reg BMW 4x4.

12Phase · 20-04-2016 12:24PM

Simple thing is the scrap metal dealer accepting this should be charged for being in receipt of stolen goods and the book thrown at them.

Also, it's bloody hard to get a large quantity of scrap metal out of Ireland without being noticed. It's not like large quantities of ESB lines or telephone wiring are disposed of on a regular basis through unusual channels.

While I can see it being an issue where you've porous land borders. It really shouldn't be a big difficulty in Ireland to make life very hard for anyone attempting to do this.

kneemos · 20-04-2016 12:37PM

12Phase wrote: »

Simple thing is the scrap metal dealer accepting this should be charged for being in receipt of stolen goods and the book thrown at them.

Also, it's bloody hard to get a large quantity of scrap metal out of Ireland without being noticed. It's not like large quantities of ESB lines or telephone wiring are disposed of on a regular basis through unusual channels.

While I can see it being an issue where you've porous land borders. It really shouldn't be a big difficulty in Ireland to make life very hard for anyone attempting to do this.

Interesting point.Do we have smelting facilities or is it exported in bulk?
Might not be that hard to hide in a container full of copper cylinders and various odds and ends.

jackofalltrades · 20-04-2016 02:08PM

ESB substations should look like an RUC Station during the troubles.
They know they're going to be targeted and should have appropriate defences.

That said there needs to be proper regulation of the scrap industry and cash for gold shops.
For the life of me I don't know why the government haven't already done this, given the crime that these industries fuel.

Dyr · 20-04-2016 02:12PM

Electric chair for them, just for the ironing

Massive explosion and fire at ESB substation caused by copper wire thieves

Comments