By Farai D Hove | The Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority reports that there was a fire at its Hwange power station Wednesday night, ZinEye can reveal.

The parastatal said the fire was so devastating that the nation lost over 140MW of power.

Below was the full text of the public memo:

ZESA HOLDINGS (PVT) LTD
PRESS STATEMENT ON HWANGE POWER STATION FIRE INCIDENT

ZESA Holdings wishes to advise its valued stakeholders that one of the units at Hwange Power Station caught fire around 1700hrs this evening.  According to ZESA Holdings Executive Chairman Dr. Sydney Gata, the fire broke out in the Unit 1 boiler as a result of a leak in the diesel supply fuel line and lasted for about forty minutes. There were no casualties arising from the fire.
Although we lost 140MW leading to load shedding between 1730hrs and 2030hrs due to suspension of load on units 2 and 5, we are in the process of firing the two units to restore power supply to the national grid.  Normal supply is expected to resume on Thursday the 11tuh of February 2021.

DR. S.Z GATA
EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN