City chaos shorts out business

50 people were evacuated from homes and businesses in Pyrmont yesterday following what witnesses described as “a huge roar of gas” from a ruptured pipeline.

The Fire Brigade received a call just before 10am that construction workers excavating the road near the corner of Miller and Harris Street hit a gas line.
Police and ambulance personnel also came to the scene, although no one was treated.

Businesses were allowed to return to work at 1pm, although not quite as many patrons returned to drink at the Harlequin Hotel, within metres of the burst pipeline.

The drama came less than a day after the city was plunged into darkness by a power blackout that spread as far as Bondi Junction.

While the University of Technology, Sydney, was spared, 2SER community radio station, around the corner, was thrown off-air for two and a half hours, losing its most popular programs.

2SER’s program manager, Anthony Dockrill said it was a shock when the power shorted out. “We were just sitting there, and then: Bang,” he said.

Messina gelato bar in Darlinghurst was pushed to melting point during the blackout, unable to use their fridges, and then suffering a second blackout from 9pm until 5am yesterday. “We lost a lot of product,” said bar operator Danny Talunto.

While the fridges and poker machines were out of order, bartenders at the Beauchamp Hotel on Oxford Street kept the beer flowing as long as they could, lighting the pub with candles.

The El Alamein fountain in Kings Cross ran dry and pre-cooked pizzas and pies became some of the only options for food along Darlinghurst Road. One fish-and-chip shop kept cooking with gas even though their extractor fan had stopped.

When the power returned at around 6.45pm, Coles became a frenzy as locals stampeded to buy their dinner.

The outage struck at 4.45pm and was caused by faults in major power cables that supplied substations. The city was halted by gridlock as traffic lights failed, requiring police to direct traffic at intersections.

About 70,000 homes and businesses were affected, with emergency services attending calls from people stuck in lifts.

Yesterday the NSW Premier, Nathan Rees, ordered a review of the city’s emergency warning system after a third of Sydney’s sirens, installed as anti-terrorism measures, didn’t sound.