Mr Mabb was walking down Abel Smith Parade past the TAFE college around midday as an Ergon crew attended a power pole in the area.

Suddenly Mr Mabb was startled by what he called a “terrific bang”.

“It didn’t sound like a rifle, it was too big a bang,” Mr Mabb said.

“It came from the pole, and there was flames shooting out of the transformer.”

Mr Mabb said it was lucky no one was hurt.

“First the Ergon guy just froze then he ran off to join the others in his crew,” he said.

Mr Mabb said part of the transformer dislodged from the pole and landed on the road forcing at least one vehicle to slow down as it approached the scene.

“A piece of it blew off over two sets of the road, across the footpath and over the drain,” he said.

“Had it happened 45 seconds later I would have been right in it.”

An Ergon spokesperson confirmed crews were working on a small voltage transformer on a power pole in Abel Smith Parade on Monday August 22 when the incident happened.

“The voltage transformer in this case is a small box about 250 mils high that is attached to the pole and transforms the electricity to 240 volts,” the spokesperson said.

The crew followed the required work practice and established an exclusion zone around the work site for safety – their own and the public.”

The spokesperson said they also followed the correct procedure to bring the transformer into service.

“The transformer was energised and failed and the cause of the failure is still be investigated,” the spokesperson said.

“There were no injuries, no damage to our network and no interruption to customers’ power supply.”

The spokesperson said it took around 10 minutes to clean up the site and the crew did not stop any traffic during the clean up.

“There was no danger to the public as the exclusion zone was in place around the work site,” he said. “I understand the likelihood of this happening again is remote.”