KEY POINTS:
A young couple who were walking alongside a power substation when it exploded this week in Auckland staggered to safety believing a bomb had gone off.
Sam Ahleong, 18, was walking along St Jude St in Avondale with his girlfriend, Juanita Mar, 15, when they heard a "huge
bang" and were hit with flames from the explosion at 3.10pm on Monday.
Power company Vector has been unable to explain the cause of the explosion, which has delayed Mr Ahleong's entry into the Royal New Zealand Police College by several months.
Speaking to the Herald from his bed in the burns unit at Middlemore Hospital, Mr Ahleong, a former Mt Roskill Grammar School student, said he had just finished running from Mt Roskill to meet Juanita at Avondale College.
He was maintaining his fitness, having only two days earlier passed the physical competency test to gain entry to the police college in Porirua.
"[The substation] just blew up," he said. "We didn't see anything, we just heard it. It hit me. Then my girlfriend took me across the road and it blew up again. It hit my left leg and my left arm and my right leg."
Despite his injuries, Mr Ahleong sheltered Juanita as they staggered across St Jude St and sat down as bystanders rushed to their assistance.
"It was just like really scary," Juanita said.
"It was a big fright. We thought it was a bomb at first because there was a really, really loud noise because we were really, really close to it. I just grabbed Sam and helped him across the road. He sheltered me."
They were taken to a nearby medical centre before he was taken to Middlemore Hospital.
Mr Ahleong said he was to enter police college next month and was "gutted" he would have to recover from moderate burns to his arm and legs, and pass the tough fitness test again closer to July. He had been working towards becoming a police officer for three years and expects to be in hospital for two weeks.
Mr Ahleong said he was pleased Juanita didn't get burned, although her hair was singed.
Vector spokeswoman Philippa White said the explosion was "regrettable and upsetting".
The company was investigating what caused the blast. It is believed it involved the "switching gear" of a power "distribution substation", where the voltage and direction of power supply is changed before being sent to households.
Vector's senior management staff had been liaising with Mr Ahleong to provide any assistance. "Public safety and the safety of Vector staff is an absolute priority to the company."
