A massive fire broke out at an electrical substation in Caballito, leaving thousands of users without electricity

More than 20,000 users – out of a total of 31,000 in the region – in at least three neighborhoods of the federal capital remained without electricity during this Sunday night, 38 hours after a massive fire gutted an electrical substation located on José María Avenue. Moreno, between Formosa and Juan Bautista Alberdi. After three hours of hard work by the firefighters, the situation could be brought under control.

Official sources indicated this on Saturday infobae That flames broke out on the ground floor and first floor Building belonging to Adesur Company, Whose front is 25 meters and depth is 40 meters. Due to the incident, several power outages were recorded in the surrounding area: at least 70,000 Users were left without electricity during the first hours in the neighborhood of Almagro, Caballito and Chacabuco Park. The elevator station was also affected. aysa Due to energy shortage and the company requested to use the service rationally.

After several hours of effort, electricity service was restored. Sunday Morning, There were still 13,200 customers without supplyHowever, as the day wore on, complaints from the company grew, with the latest information pointing to the installation of larger generation equipment to reduce the number of affected customers while substation reconstruction works begin.

Despite the work done, during today there were power outages in several blocks of the Cabellito and Parque Chacabuco neighborhoods, which were not affected by the fire on Saturday, and an increase in the number of customers without service. Despite complaints, there was no electricity in these localities.

The company noted that The incident occurred while a maintenance crew was working on the site, “This was a scheduled oil filtration activity at one of the main transformers, a task for which a specific treatment machine is used,” he said. And he added that “the fire may have started in the said filtration machine, which will then affect the rest of the facilities.”

The Caballito substation was renovated and reenergized in 2015. It has two 80 MVA HV/MV transformers with four bars per section and 8 MV output and serves 100 thousand customers.

The incident was reported to the emergency department at 2:51 pm and personnel from Neighborhood Police Station 6B were immediately dispatched to the spot. Upon arrival, they saw flames spreading and requested the attendance of city firefighters, who arrived a few minutes later and proceeded to evacuate both the affected substation and a neighboring house. Two transformers and a part of the complex were gutted in the fire.

The brigade personnel took control of the situation around 7 pm after more than three hours. “The fire is under control, it is cooling down. Work was done on two transformers which had 35-35 thousand liters of oil. It was a complex situation, but the process has already been brought under control,” said Diego Correa, fire chief. And he added: “As we cleared the road, evacuated neighbors can now enter their apartments. There is no danger now. “We still don’t know what happened.”

Firefighters began to control the blaze as per the assigned medium. From the front of the first floor. However, it was necessary to reinforce the equipment as the fire spread rapidly. The rear of a building facing Riglos Street, As a result, the security perimeter was expanded across the entire block and residents of nearby houses were evacuated.

Joined in operation with SAME 20 ambulances. These were available to provide assistance to evacuees, although it was confirmed that no injuries Neither do burn patients or those who inhaled monoxide. Only four people were treated for nervous breakdowns and two were given oxygen; they did not need to be transferred to a medical center.

Police from the Rapid Intervention Directorate, motorized police, traffic agent corps, prevention agents and a container unit were also sent to the spot.

As if the fire emergency was not enough, AySA reported that its elevator station, located a few blocks away from the incident, was affected by energy shortages and for this reason the company requested a rational use of service . “A contingency plan will be implemented until power is restored at the Caballito Lifting Station, strengthening the distribution of drinking water with pumping from the Flores Lifting Station, Centro Lifting Station and Devoto Lifting Station,” the distribution company said.

There are neighborhoods targeted by potential low pressure or water shortages Caballito, Flores, Floresta, Boedo, Balvanera, Almagro, Palermo, Nueva Pompeia, Avellaneda Park, Chacabuco Park, Patricios Park, Recoleta, San Cristóbal, Villa Crespo, Villa Santa Rita And Villa Soldati, and Buenos Aires city Pioneiro (Avellaneda) and valentin alesina (Lanus).

Head of Government of Buenos Aires, george macriA retained from Italy virtual meeting With the deputy head of the city, clara muzio, Chief of Staff, Nestor Grindetti and “All sectors involved in the prevention and assistance operations the government is carrying out following the fire at the Adesur substation in Caballito.”

“From the beginning, in addition to evacuating nearby residents and provide drinking water to the neighbors, we took them to that place eight ambulances And four identical mobiles To deal with any eventuality. We set up a special campaign for people power dependent And older. We have also provided affected residents with a place to spend the night if needed,” said the official’s message, which was broadcast on his personal account on the X Network at 8 pm on Saturday.

Furthermore, George Macri said that his government team “Continuous communication with Adesur Urgency is being sought to restore supply, and we have already requested information about the cause of the fire and its impact on the power system.”

“I once again commend the work of the firefighters, police, SAMe, Civil Defense and various City emergency teams who continue to work at the scene with commitment and professionalism,” the district chief concluded the post.