I may be wrong but I don't see anything mentioned anywhere about the passing of one of Oranjemund's legends... dear Aunty Betty Bell . She passed away shortly before the Oranjemund get together in Table view. She was such a darling person and our heartfelt condolences go out to the whole family. I know Louise is trying to get John to move down from Natal to Cape Town, I just know he is taking it very badly.
John Bell, electrician ???
Give him my regards, he tought me how to drink scotch
Give him my sincere condolences, life must go on
Georg
Sorry Bev, that's my fault, CHarlotte Bews sent me the email a week back, but between three pc's and the amount of email I receive, I misplaced it and then forgot about it..... I will endevour to update on tuesday.....
"As discussed, please put Betty Bell on the Lost Diamonds list. She passed away on 17 February 2008"
was betty bell louise bells, mom freddie ahrens x missus???? my condolences to the family
My condolences . Sandy ...
we the macpherson family wish u long life and just be strong.
A memory just flashed back . John Bell .. was it not him that got burnt when one of the electrical panels in a KM enclosure exploded with such a force that the molten plastic of the panel cover literally stuck stuck to him and had to be peeled off him . the other terrible incident i remember was at 4 plant when Johan Di Paola was working on a panel and screwdriver slipped shorted and the panel that was not properly protected ( ie : if in doubt bridge out IOW virtually 6 inch nails for fuses ) it apparently was like the fire from hell and roasted his entire front body .. he was brought into the workshop with the skin on his tummy hanging in shreds and then rushed out to hospital ... and of course the time Whitey Bredenkamp got hit by 3 Kv in a substation .. it stiched maarks down his back as it arced .. all very lucky to be alive ...
...then there was the case which my father relayed to me, of a chap going into the HT substation at Uubvley, and used a multimeter to measure HT, he lived ...but got badly burned.....
I recall the helper incident .. My dad as he was inclined had lots of empathy for Johnny .. he too had his problems with safety issues like the time Bobby de Klerck destroyed his hand on a steam hammer .. the machine was a ssafely guarded as practical operation allowed .. It had a semicircular pedal running around the machine so as to allow the boilermaker to manouvre the metal piece he was stamping .. the pedal was covered with 100 mm interval liftable covers .. Bobby lifted the one cover knelt down to postion the piece of metal to be worked and as he was positioning it his knee pressed on the pedal .. bang one hand gone in a few strokes .. My dad took it very personaly and was in his case ditched by those in charge .. fortunately there was one high up who had enough common sense to say that with a machine like that due care has to be taken and the only extra safety feature added was a warning sign saying that all safety covers must be down while positioning the workpiece ..
Louise's mom worked in the shopping centre, in the women's store, didn't she?
THE GUYS NAME WAS MARTIN DU TOIT ( FLAH GORDON )
Quote from: georgswa on May 24, 2008, 08:12:21 PM
@ Sandy
I dont know that story about John, but Whitey told me about his encounter on the 30 kV. Actualy a wonder he survived that.
May be you also remember when a helper was roasted on the HT Line between town PWR station and the mine
Johnny Rall was found guilty althought all engineers standing by dit not get any thing.
They hade mixed up North and South Line !!!! Only one was switched off , the other live....
Due to that, i made my point sometimes very clear when i acted on incidents and was reprimanded, so i asked to have that in writing so just in case they will then be held reponsible. No one was prepared to give it in writing....cowards as they were
That was the case when i switched off the complete PWR supply on the 30 kV @ 3 Plant cause of an emergency after the CCP refused to run down the plant. At that time the SWA intake and Boosters were live with 6,6 kV. So i just switched off....... LOL
I dit not want to be guilty like J. Rall who had done nothing wrong on that other incident
Sorry had to tell that story........it still upsets me today.....
Remember trhat to. Must've been 75 or 76.
Ok, I added Betty's name and while I was there also added, Bertha and Loiue Lankhaar....
May be you also remember when a helper was roasted on the HT Line between town PWR station and the mine
Johnny Rall was found guilty althought all engineers standing by dit not get any thing.
Hi guys
I was attending High School when that happened and it had a huge impact on my dad. If I remember correctly he was found guilty of manslaughter, fined R200 (a lot of money at the time) as well as a suspended sentence of 2 years. I seem to recall that at the time of giving out instructions to the handy man, a junior engineer was in attendance who could testify for him and the same engineer was with him when the accident happened. My dad actually saw the helper climbing the wrong pole, he was in his Land Rover coming from the mine and was laying on the hooter to warn them when the helper touched the live wire. He made a decision at the time to not involve the engineer because he was a young guy starting out and it would have looked bad on his record. The handy man was taken away from the electrical area and redeployed as a mechanic or something. Like I say, this is what I remember, the gray cells are not what they were!
Hi Goeor, Regarding to the Whitey bredenhann incident, I saved his life that day and here is the story very briefly.
Just as a matter rof interest regarding to Whitey Bredenhann incident. I remember that we had to get submersible pumps up and running as the mine was flooding. Whitey was my junior appy when I was in my last year. We were busy making off cables to connect to a live 33Kv transformer in a caged area. The wind was blowing furiously that day and the sand was in our eyes and could not see further than our noses LOL. I showed Whitey how to make the cable off and the length the leads had to be to connect to the switch on the transformer. I had to go back to the trailer where all the switchgear was for the pumps and start to wire them up. When I turned around I heard Whitey F...k this wind and he went and stood underneath the arching bushes on the live side of the transformer. As he had cut off the end of the cable, he stood up and the arching bush got him on the back. The incident tripped out the main sub feeding 4 plant and surrounding areas. I then hit the hacksaw from his handwith the cable end he had sawed off, felt his pulse and eyes were rolled back and body was shaking. I immediately started to give him heart massage and mouth to mouth resperation till I felt there was a pulse and resperation. An ovambo first aider came to see what had happened and offered assistance. I told him it would be fine. The radio was going beserk, Cassie Castle, Mine operators etc saying power is off. I told them what had happened and headed to the hospital. Whitey was still unconcious but I had monitored his pulse and resperation all the time. I told the medical staff what had happened and immediately they gave him an injection. I went to visit Whitey that night but he did not know who or where he was. I still today can't forget that day, it was one of the most frightening days of my life. The bush war was'nt even that bad LOL.
Thanks Pepe
Great story, glad you reacted as you dit.....
No wonder i always said, we had the best electrical crew on 3 plant !!!!!
Thanks George,
I can only agree with you, we were the best and still are the best!!!!
Well done Paul. bravo
Talking about all those bad burns.... I remember I was temping at the Hospital when Brian Masterton was brought in..... he was also very badly burnt but I can't remember the details... think it was late 80's!