I think through civil law/tort/delict (in simple terms, someone sueing someone else) than the electricity company could potentially be sued. I think if the right person heard about it at the electricity company (i.e. not the call centre supervisor) then they would do something.
I would suggest that the fire officer should get the most senior colleugue possible to phone someone pretty senior at the electricity company (chief executive, finance director, risk/insurance manager - something like that) and point out that people might die because of their actions.
Or, if the fire service has lawyers on the pay roll, get them to send a fax to the legal department.
I'm not sure if any of this would work, but I think it might be worth trying.
Suggest you get hold of a copy of a standard connection agreement, basicallay the Network Operator has the right to terminate your supply for many reasons including failure to pay and also failure of your supplier to pay them.
Although I agree its an interestintg legal case, and I'm not sure the connection agreement would be totally water tight, however I would not expect they would give up without a fight!
I would expect they would go for the landlord, for example how did the landlord tell them of the change of address etc.
now if its just their energy supplier have the address wrong, I would expect they would have difficulty getting out of it, however the network operator who actually cut off the supply would get off scott free
