Hundreds of residents of Grewal Colony remained without electricity for nearly 17 hours after a distribution transformer caught fire late Sunday night, disrupting both power and water supply in the locality.Residents allege repeated complaints about oil leakage to PSPCL went unheeded. (HT File)The blaze, triggered by an oil leak, extensively damaged cables connected to the transformer, leaving the area without electricity from around 10.50 pm on Sunday until nearly 4.20 pm on Monday, even as temperatures remained high.The transformer, installed on Street No. 4 of Grewal Colony, caught fire after residents noticed smoke billowing from the unit. Within minutes, flames engulfed the connected cables, plunging the locality into darkness.Residents alleged the transformer had been leaking oil for several days and claimed they had repeatedly alerted Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) officials about the fault.They alleged no preventive repairs were carried out despite repeated complaints and maintained that the incident could have been averted had timely action been taken.The prolonged outage severely disrupted daily life. Besides electricity, water supply across the locality was also affected as domestic water pumps remained non-functional.Residents said overhead tanks ran dry, forcing many households to struggle for drinking water and other basic needs, while the prolonged blackout left fans, coolers and other essential appliances unusable throughout the night and most of Monday.Sunita, a resident of the locality, said the outage had brought normal life to a standstill.“There was no electricity throughout the night and most of Monday. With fans and coolers not working, it became extremely difficult to stay indoors in this heat. Since our water pumps also could not run, many households ran out of water by morning,” she said.Rajesh Kumar, another resident, said prolonged outages linked to transformer faults had become increasingly frequent this summer.“Every time a transformer develops a fault, restoration takes several hours. During this weather, even a few hours without electricity becomes difficult, but this outage lasted almost the entire day and affected children, elderly people and working families alike,” he said.Following the incident, residents alerted PSPCL officials and the fire brigade. While the blaze was brought under control without any injuries, restoration was delayed as the damaged cables had to be replaced before supply could be resumed.Executive engineer (XEN), Sundar Nagar Division, Jagmohan Singh, said the transformer itself remained intact and that restoration took longer because of the extent of the damage to the connected cables.“The transformer remained safe, but the connected cables were extensively damaged after the fire caused by oil leakage. Replacing the damaged cables took considerable time because of the extent of the damage. Electricity supply was restored around 4.20 pm after the repair work was completed. The estimated loss is around ₹50,000,” he said.“Owing to the ongoing heatwave, complaints related to transformer faults and overloading have increased significantly across the division, making fault management more challenging,” he added.Additional superintending engineer, Sundar Nagar Division, Rajesh Kumar, said the utility shifted the load through an alternate arrangement to minimise disruption while repair work was underway.“The transformer was not damaged. However, the connected cables caught fire and had to be replaced. As an immediate measure, the load was shifted through an alternate feeder to restore supply to most consumers while repair work continued. The remaining restoration work was completed after the damaged cables were replaced and electricity supply was fully normalised,” he said.PSPCL officials said supply was restored after replacing the damaged cables and reconnecting the affected load.