More than half of the electricity pylons which were damaged by the wildfire which tore through the Limassol district last week have now been replaced, electricity authority (EAC) spokeswoman Christina Papadopoulou said on Tuesday.

Speaking to the Cyprus News Agency, she said that as of Monday night, 300 of the 500 pylons which were damaged have now been replaced, and that 11 of the 50 transformers which were damaged have also been replaced, with the 11 new transformers having been installed and activated.

In addition, she said, 12 kilometres worth of overhead power lines have also been installed since the weekend to replace what was damaged in the fire.

“We are continuing to work non-stop. Our absolute priority is to complete the network repair work safely and as quickly as possible,” she said.

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She then moved to explain the process, saying that work is first being carried out on the “medium voltage” network, which she described as the “trunk of the network”.

Once that network has been restored, she said, transformers will be activated so that the “low voltage” network, which is used in residential properties, can be activated.

“Premises which were not damaged will be reconnected once the entire network is set up and the transformer which supplies them can be activated,” she said, adding that for properties which were damaged, the process will be longer.

“It will take a long time to set up a new electrical installation, have an inspection, and connect those properties to the network from scratch,” she said.

She went on to say that the process of re-electrifying the fire-impacted parts of the Limassol district will be a “time-consuming process” and an “enormous task”.

“We are trying to do as much work as we can,” she said.

She had on Monday said that a team of more than 150 people is working “non-stop” to repair the damage caused by the fire.

“The EAC has undertaken a huge project to repair the damage in the affected areas of the Limassol district, where our priority is for everyone to have electricity. The goal is to complete the network repair work safely and as quickly as possible,” she said.

She also said the EAC has deployed drones, “which we used to save a lot of time and managed to safely inspect and record damage” between the villages of Trimiklini and Lofou, which she said was “in an area which was very difficult to access, where the ground had cracked due to the high temperatures”.

For work to be carried out in that area, she added, “special excavators” were required to “pave the way for EAC vehicles to pass”.