Beetham Power Restored After 33-Hour Outage

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Residents of Beetham Gardens endured roughly 33 hours without power after Saturday’s fire at the nearby TSTT cable yard. T&TEC told the Guardian that affected electrical lines required a safety response and that supply was restored at 7:54 a.m. on Monday 26 October. The outage is a direct consequence reported by the utility, separate from the still-open investigation into who started the fire.

Sources: Guardian, 27 Oct, p7 ↗

Residents interviewed by the newspaper described food spoiling in freezers and limits on work. One shopkeeper estimated he discarded nearly TT$500 of ice cream; a mechanic said he could do oil changes but could not operate his power tools. Those are individual reported losses, not a community-wide damage estimate.

Laventille West MP Kareem Marcelle alleged political interference delayed restoration. Public Utilities Minister Barry Padarath rejected the claim and attributed the delay to fire-damaged lines and safety work; T&TEC’s explanation also cites the lines. No documentary evidence in the reviewed report establishes that restoration was deliberately withheld. A repair timeline from T&TEC would help readers judge how the 33 hours were spent.

Sources: Guardian, 27 Oct, p7 ↗