Power outages hit QLD after fire

An explosion at a Queensland coal-fired power station has led to a widespread power outage, affecting almost 500,000 homes from northern New South Wales to Cairns.

Queensland government-owned corporation CS Energy confirmed the fire at the Callide power station near Biloela caused the shutdown of the station’s three operating generators.

“At approximately 1.45pm today, a fire occurred in one of the turbine halls at the power station,” it said on Twitter. ”As a result, the three units that were generating at the time went offline. We immediately evacuated the power station and called emergency services to attend site.”

Power companies Powerlink, Energex and Ergon confirmed widespread outages had taken place since the fire was announced, impacting various locations across the state.

Energex, which manages the power network in south-east Queensland, said 389,000 people from the Gold Coast to Caboolture were impacted.

The Australian Energy Market Operator advised that some customers may experience further outages.

In a statement, Queensland energy minister Mick de Brenni, said: “I’m thankful no one was injured in this incident and we’re working hard to resolve these unprecedented issues as quickly as we can.”

“Essential services such as hospitals, transport networks, ports, airports and other key infrastructure will stay online.”

He added that commercial and industrial users could contribute to the effort by reducing energy use where safe to do so, and warned that traffic lights could be affected, making driving conditions unsafe.

Rail services were not affected but Gold Coast trams were hit.