Auckland apartments, rest home wired with fire risk cable

By Carla Penman

An Auckland apartment block and a retirement village under construction are the latest buildings to be discovered fitted with potentially dangerous electric cabling.

Worksafe is investigating Lyon Electrical Limited for importing and installing an unsafe electric cable in seven buildings throughout Auckland.

Tests carried out on the cable showed that its insulation is likely to become brittle and may fracture within just a few years of being installed, resulting in an increased fire and shock risk.

A warning was issued to all electrical workers nation-wide last Monday to be on alert about the particular TPS cable.

NZH Focus has been told about a few other buildings potentially affected - all of which are now on Worksafe's radar.

A former employee of the now-liquidated Lyon Electrical has spoken to NZH Focus about his six month stint of working for the company.

He says the company imported two shipments containing tens of thousands of metres of the faulty cable. The most recent shipment being in May this year.

The former employee says the first he heard the cables were non-complaint, was when Worksafe got involved about a month and a half ago.

He says as far as he knew, and the other employees, the company had the correct certification.

The former employee says the faulty cable was fitted in two projects he worked on - Redmond Apartments in Ponsonby and Everil Orr Retirement Village in Mt Albert.

Worksafe says the rest home is one of its seven sites and NZH Focus understands the process of ripping out the cables and replacing them is underway.

As for the still-to-be-completed Redmond Apartments, a spokesperson for Scarbro Construction has confirmed Lyon Electrical Limited worked on it and all of the electric cables would be replaced. Worksafe's looking into this site.

After several attempts by NZH Focus to contact the company director, including visiting his home and two east Auckland sites, he has emailed requesting an opportunity to tell the company's side of the story.

He's yet to reply to a request for an interview in person.

Worksafe is continuing to ask anyone who has had work done by Lyon Electrical Limited after July 1, 2016 to report it to them.