More than half of Argentina plunges into darkness as fire knocks out power grid
Argentina faces massive blackout after power grid fails due to fire.
More than half of the households in Argentina plunged into darkness for two hours after the national electricity grid was affected by the fire on Wednesday. The capital city Buenos Aires, along with other major cities and large areas in the countryside, were partly or wholly affected.
As per reports, the fire started in open fields, affecting the important power lines in the coastal zone as a nuclear power station went offline. The electricity was restored in the capital city at about 6:00 pm (2100 GMT) as lights flickered in the metro system, and gradually the public services were restored.
The reports of the first power outages surfaced from 4:00-5:00 pm local time, as traffic lights went out of order and metro stations in Buenos Aires went into total darkness.
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Speaking to the C5N network, Argentina's undersecretary for energy Santiago Yanotti said that there has been an increase in power demand due to the high temperatures.
The sudden power blackout came amid drought and heatwave in Argentina. As the South American nation is still in the summer months, the temperatures have consistently been more than 35C in a few parts of the country.
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The rising temperature and the power outage halted the daily lives of people in a few regions, as businesses remain closed and classes suspended. Many people were forced to live without any access to air conditioning or refrigeration.
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The country's major cities were badly affected as more than 1,50,000 people lived without power in the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area.
In Argentina, power cuts are not uncommon. A massive electrical failure in 2019 pushed tens of millions of citizens into the darkness in Argentina along with neighbouring Uruguay. In 2020, hundreds of thousands of homes faced blackout in Buenos Aires.
(With inputs from agencies)
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