What Counts as an Electrical Emergency?
Not every electrical fault is an emergency. But some absolutely are, and getting it wrong can cost you your property, or worse.
After thirty-odd years of after-hours callouts across Pretoria, I have seen two types of people. The first panics over a tripped breaker that just needs resetting. The second ignores a burning smell behind the wall for three days because they figure it will sort itself out.
A genuine electrical emergency means immediate risk of fire, electrocution, or serious property damage. If any of the following are happening right now, you need an emergency electrician in Pretoria, not tomorrow morning.
Call an electrician immediately if you notice
- Sparking or arcing from any socket outlet, switch, or DB board
- A burning smell, especially a sharp, acrid plastic smell, coming from walls, sockets, or the DB board
- Complete power loss to your property when neighbours still have power (and it is not load shedding)
- Exposed or damaged live wires, from storm damage, construction work, or rodents chewing through cables
- Water in contact with electrical installations, flooding near the DB board, leaking geyser dripping onto wiring
- A breaker or earth leakage that trips repeatedly and will not stay reset
- Smoke or discolouration around any electrical fitting, plug point, or light switch
If you are dealing with any of these, do not try to diagnose it yourself. Switch off the main breaker if you can safely reach it, and call a qualified electrician.
Last month I got called to a house in Garsfontein where the owner had been resetting a tripping earth leakage for two days straight. By the time I opened the DB board, the bus bar connections had overheated so badly the plastic housing had started to deform. Another hour and that board could have caught fire. Do not push your luck.
Common Electrical Emergencies in Pretoria
Pretoria keeps us busy. Older suburbs like Brooklyn and Arcadia have 50-year-old wiring that is falling apart. Newer estates in Centurion and Midrand have their own problems, cheap installations done under time pressure by developers cutting corners. These are the emergencies we get called to most often:
DB Board Tripping Repeatedly
Our most common emergency call. The earth leakage trips, you reset it, and it trips again within seconds. That usually means insulation breakdown, a damaged cable, faulty appliance, or moisture getting into a junction box. In older Pretoria suburbs like Brooklyn and Hatfield, the rubber and PVC insulation on cables from the 1960s and 70s has deteriorated past its lifespan. It cracks, it crumbles, and it earths out.
Power Surges After Load Shedding
When power comes back after load shedding, the voltage spike can be brutal. We regularly find burnt-out geyser elements, fried inverter boards, and scorched DB board components, all from the restoration surge. One callout in Lynnwood last year, the surge caused a cable joint behind the kitchen wall to arc. The homeowner smelled burning plastic for an hour before calling us. No surge protection on the board at all.
Burnt or Melted Socket Outlets
Overloaded sockets are everywhere in Pretoria, especially in older homes that were wired for a kettle and a radio, not a heater, TV, and three multi-plug adapters. The plug point gets hot, the plastic faceplate starts to warp or discolour, and eventually you see scorch marks. By that point the wiring behind the wall is damaged too.
Geyser Element Failures Causing Trips
A failed geyser element does not just mean cold showers. When the element cracks, water gets in and shorts to the geyser casing. That trips the earth leakage, and because the geyser is often on the same earth leakage as half the house, everything goes dark. I was called to a place in Midstream where the owner had been resetting the earth leakage every morning for a week. Each reset pushed current through a failed element sitting in water. That is how geysers catch fire.
Storm and Water Damage
Pretoria thunderstorms are savage. Lightning hits, wind rips overhead cables off the mast, and rainwater floods outdoor DB boards and junction boxes. Summer storm season, October to March, is our busiest period for emergency callouts. If lightning has struck near your property and anything electrical is behaving strangely, do not wait. Get someone out.
Generator and Inverter Faults
Load shedding created a gold rush for backup power installations, and plenty of them were done badly. Changeover switches that fail and back-feed into the municipal supply. Inverter batteries overheating in sealed cupboards with no ventilation. Undersized cables running generators at full load. We are cleaning up these messes every week.
What to Do Before the Electrician Arrives
You have called an emergency electrician and they are on their way. Here is what to do, and what not to do, while you wait. These are the same steps we walk people through over the phone at 2am.
Switch Off the Main Breaker
If it is safe to reach the DB board without standing in water or touching anything damaged, switch off the main breaker. This cuts power to the entire installation and removes the immediate risk. If you cannot safely reach the DB board, leave it alone and keep everyone clear of the area.
Do Not Touch Anything Wet
Water and electricity are a lethal combination. If there is any water near the DB board, near socket outlets, or on the floor around electrical installations, do not step in it and do not try to mop it up while the power is on. Switch off the mains first, or wait for the electrician.
Keep Children and Pets Away
Move children and pets to a safe room away from the affected area. Kids are naturally curious and the last thing you need is a child poking at a sparking socket while you are on the phone to the electrician. Close doors to the affected area if possible.
Do Not Try to Fix It Yourself
You watched a YouTube video, you have a screwdriver, and you reckon you can tighten that loose wire. Do not. A live fault is unpredictable. I have seen a 6mm cable melt a screwdriver tip in under a second on a dead short. Leave it for someone with the right training and insulated tools.
Unplug Sensitive Equipment
If the power is still on and you are experiencing surges or flickering, unplug computers, TVs, and other sensitive electronics. These are particularly vulnerable to voltage fluctuations and can be expensive to replace.
Note What Happened
Try to remember the sequence of events, what you were doing when the fault occurred, which breaker tripped, whether you heard or smelled anything. This information helps the electrician diagnose the problem faster when they arrive.
If there is smoke or fire
If you see actual smoke or flames coming from any electrical point, get everyone out of the property immediately and call the fire department first. Then call your electrician. Property can be repaired, people cannot. Never use water to try and extinguish an electrical fire.
How Fast Can We Respond?
When you call INC Unlimited for an emergency electrician in Pretoria, you speak to a real person. Not a call centre. We assess the situation over the phone, give you immediate safety advice, and dispatch an electrician.
Our typical response times depend on your location and the time of the call:
| Area | Typical Response Time |
|---|---|
| Pretoria CBD, Arcadia, Sunnyside | 30 - 45 minutes |
| Brooklyn, Hatfield, Menlo Park | 30 - 45 minutes |
| Centurion, Irene, Midstream | 30 - 60 minutes |
| Pretoria East (Garsfontein, Faerie Glen) | 30 - 60 minutes |
| Pretoria North (Sinoville, Montana) | 45 - 60 minutes |
| Midrand, Kyalami | 45 - 75 minutes |
| Surrounding areas (Cullinan, Bronkhorstspruit) | 60 - 90 minutes |
Response times are estimates based on typical traffic conditions. During peak hours, times may be slightly longer. After-hours and weekend callouts are subject to availability.
Our vehicles carry testing equipment, common replacement breakers, earth leakage units, cable, and the tools to handle most emergency repairs on the spot. The aim is to make the situation safe and restore power in a single visit.
Emergency vs Non-Emergency - What Can Wait?
Not everything requires a 24 hour electrician. After-hours callouts cost more, that is standard. So it is worth knowing what needs fixing right now versus what can wait until business hours.
Call Now - Cannot Wait
- Burning smell from any electrical point
- Sparking or arcing at sockets, switches, or the DB board
- Complete power loss (not load shedding)
- Exposed live wires
- Water in contact with electrical installations
- Earth leakage trips immediately every time you reset it
- Smoke or discolouration at electrical fittings
- Electric shock received from any fitting or appliance
Can Wait Until Morning
- A single breaker trips but resets and stays on
- One socket outlet has stopped working (others are fine)
- A light fitting has stopped working
- Intermittent flickering on one circuit
- A geyser is not heating (no tripping or burning smell)
- You want a second opinion on existing wiring
- Non-urgent DB board upgrade enquiry
- Prepaid meter issues (contact your municipality first)
When in doubt, call anyway
Not sure if your situation is an emergency? Call and describe what is happening. We would rather spend two minutes on the phone telling you it can wait until Monday than have you sitting on a genuine hazard all weekend. 072 681 4615, any time.
How to Prevent Electrical Emergencies
The cheapest emergency callout is the one that never happens. Most of what we attend in Pretoria could have been caught with a basic inspection six months earlier. Here is what actually prevents emergencies:
Get a Regular COC Inspection
A COC inspection tests every circuit, checks your earthing, verifies your DB board, and flags deteriorating wiring. It is the single best way to catch hazards before they become emergencies. Get one done at least every two years, do not wait until you are selling.
Learn about our COC inspection serviceUpgrade Your DB Board
Still got an old DB board with rewirable fuses or single-pole breakers? You are sitting on a problem. A modern board with split earth leakage, surge arrestors, and correctly rated breakers is the single biggest safety upgrade you can do to an older property.
See our DB board upgrade optionsInstall Surge Protection
Given Pretoria's thunderstorm activity and the ongoing power fluctuations from load shedding, a quality surge protection device on your DB board is not optional, it is essential. A Class II surge arrestor costs a fraction of what it costs to replace a fried inverter, geyser element, or gate motor.
Have Generators and Inverters Professionally Installed
A generator or inverter installed incorrectly will eventually fail, and when it does, it fails dangerously. Proper changeover switching, correct cable sizing, battery ventilation, and compliant earthing are all critical. If your backup power was installed by someone who is not a registered electrician, get it inspected.
Professional generator installationStop Overloading Socket Outlets
Multi-plug into a multi-plug into a multi-plug, all hanging off one wall socket. We see it every week. Every socket has a maximum rating, 16 amps on a standard SA plug point. Exceed it and the connections heat up. Getting extra sockets installed properly costs a fraction of what fire damage costs.
INC Unlimited Emergency Electrical Services
INC Unlimited handles emergency electrical work across Pretoria, Centurion, Midrand, and the wider Gauteng area. We are registered, we carry the right qualifications, and we have been doing this long enough to have seen just about everything. Here is what to expect when you call:
Fast Callout Times
30 to 60 minutes for most areas in Pretoria. Our vehicles carry the parts and testing equipment needed for the most common emergency repairs, so we can usually sort it in one visit.
Registered Electricians
Everyone on our team is registered with the Department of Labour. You get a qualified electrician with proper test equipment, not a handyman with a pair of pliers and a YouTube education.
Upfront Pricing
We tell you the callout fee before we come out, and we quote for any repairs before starting work. Emergency rates are higher than daytime rates, that is the industry standard, but we will not inflate the price because you are desperate at midnight.
Proper Fault Finding
We do not just reset the breaker and leave. We use insulation resistance testers, clamp meters, and circuit tracers to find the root cause. A quick fix that does not address the actual problem means we will be back next week, and that is a waste of your money and ours.
We Tell You the Truth
If a situation is unsafe, we say so, even if it means more work and a bigger bill. We will not leave a property in a state we would not accept in our own homes.
We Follow Up
After an emergency callout, we check back to make sure everything is still working. If the repair uncovered other problems, an outdated DB board, deteriorating wiring, we quote for that work at standard daytime rates, not emergency prices.
Need our help with fault finding?
A lot of emergency callouts come down to tracking a fault, a circuit that trips intermittently, a connection that overheats under load, or wiring damaged inside a wall. Our electrical fault finding service uses professional testing equipment to pinpoint the problem. See our Pretoria electrician page for the full list of areas we cover.
Do Not Take Chances with Electrical Emergencies
Electrical faults do not fix themselves. A breaker that keeps tripping is telling you something. A burning smell is telling you something louder. I once arrived at a house in Waterkloof where the DB board was visibly smoking, the owner had noticed a smell two days earlier and decided to wait. The main bus bar connections had melted into the housing. Another few hours and that board would have set the wall alight.
If something does not feel right with your electrical installation, call someone. Middle of the night, Sunday afternoon, it does not matter. Having a qualified emergency electrician in Pretoria on speed dial is the kind of thing you are grateful for when you need it.
INC Unlimited is here when you need us. Contact us for any electrical emergency across Pretoria, Centurion, Midrand, and the greater Gauteng region. Save our number, 072 681 4615, because when the lights go out and the DB board is smoking, you will want to know exactly who to call.
Written by Andre
Registered Electrician & Founder of INC Unlimited Pty. Ltd
With over 30 years of experience in the electrical trade across Pretoria and Gauteng, Andre and the INC Unlimited team have completed over 500 COC inspections, installations, and electrical projects. SANS 10142 compliant. Based in Equestria, Pretoria.