“Hello, does anyone know if the power came back on in the area of Av. Alberdi at 600?”, “Hello neighbors, as soon as the power comes back on in the area of Acoyte at 100, they will chiflare here”, “No light and no water on Valle and Bertres streets
.
These are some of the many messages in groups of residents of
Caballito
, the neighborhood that
was left without electricity
after the
Edesur
substation located at José María Moreno 300 caught fire on Saturday at 2:50 p.m.
Due to the fire, there were neighbors evacuated throughout the afternoon and there were
60,000 users without electrical service in the City of Buenos Aires.
In a latest update this Sunday morning, Edesur explained that there were
13,200 customers without supply due to the fire
, which represented an 80% recovery of service.
The company added that, although the fire experts will analyze the causes of the incident, they could assert that "it occurred when
a maintenance crew was carrying out work at the site
, a scheduled oil leak activity in one of the main transformers."
“The fire would have originated in said filtration machine, later affecting the rest of the facilities.
We continue working in the area together with the City Government and the Ministry of Energy.
In the next few hours , large generating equipment
will be installed
to reduce the number of affected customers and while the substation reconstruction tasks begin,” they added.
Meanwhile, the National Energy Regulator (ENRE) indicated that it was dedicated to controlling, with technical personnel, the repair of the tasks that the Edesur company will carry out at the site and announced that "it will carry out an investigation to determine the causes that produced the fire".
At 6:30 p.m. on Sunday, there were
18,830 users with power outages in general in the AMBA
(16,183 from Edesur and 2,647 from Edenor), of which 8,830 were from Caballito, according to the ENRE report.
Power outages
Real-time information
Tap to explore data
Outage in the network of: Medium voltage |
Low voltage
Source:
Enre
Infographic:
Clarín
Clarín
consulted with Edesur about the status of the outages in that neighborhood, and whether the complete recomposition of the service can be expected for users who are still awaiting a response.
At the moment, they said
the recovery of all the buildings that suffered outages cannot be accurately predicted
.
There is also a focus of lack of supply in part of Flores and Parque Chacabuco.
“They are working in different ways to be able to recover, through generating sets or distributing demand with other substations.
The restoration was 80% achieved.
The remaining 20% is still being worked on but
no deadlines can be given
.
They could not even enter the entire substation yet, because the firefighters
continue to cool the walls
,” they detailed to
Clarín
.
The affected substation supplies 100,000 customers.
When asked what could be the reasons that lead to substations catching fire, they added that
it is not common for this to happen
and that "they always try to minimize the risks as much as possible and there are different levels of protection and fire-fighting systems."
Edesur has 72 substations throughout its operation area.
Without electricity or water: the neighbors' complaint
“Does anyone dare to protest in the street? I have children and older adults at home and
we are going for 48 hours without electricity
.
"This is inhuman
. "
It was one of the many publications that flooded social networks at this time.
In this case, the anger came from Carla, a neighbor of Caballito who lives on Senillosa and Rosario streets.
“In my area there is no one from Edesur working.
There are several areas where electricity and water did not reach.
Most cases near Rivadavia Park.
When you call Edesur, there is an answering machine that says
they will call us when they know something more
.
Before, an operator answered, or gave a message about a possible return time for the service, but they removed him.
There is already zero communication and we can't find anywhere to complain
,” he commented in dialogue with
Clarín.
Caballito: fire, thousands of users without electricity and without water.
The neighbor added that there are those who are already mobilizing to make a cacerolazo and that another of the issues of concern is traffic due to the lack of traffic lights.
“Yesterday there was a strong clash on Av. La Plata and Formosa over this issue,” she said.
Horacio, who is also a neighbor and who lives in a building that is right next to the burned substation, clarified that in his case he has
already had electricity since early morning
, but that he is aware of neighbors who still do not have the supply.
He highlighted that the City firefighters continue working on the block, although since last night - after more than six hours of work - they reported that they managed to control the flames.
Although no victims were reported in Saturday's incident, several people had to be assisted by SAME personnel
due to suffocation due to smoke
, in the midst of an operation deployed by the Government of the City of Buenos Aires to provide assistance to the victims.
The fire caused problems in the running water network
During these hours, there are users who use social media groups to report on the status of the service in their blocks: some of them highlight that there is both a lack of electricity and water.
Precisely, Agua y Saneamientos Argentina (Aysa) had previously warned that it was possible that
damage would be caused to the supply
.
In fact, the outage of the substation affected the Aysa Lift Station, located a few blocks from the site of the fire, and
it also lost power
.
The company in charge of providing water and sewer service for the City told
Clarín
that they are pending the restoration work carried out by Edesur.
At noon on Sunday they had
1,700 claims in Caballito
, a figure that had been accumulating since Saturday.
Edesur reported at 6:30 p.m. that at "it was already possible to give power to the Aysa plant."
Fire at EDESUR Substation 122 in the Caballito neighborhood Av José Maria Moreno at 300Photo Emmanuel Fernández
Aysa had not yet confirmed this information and hoped to connect its mobile energy substation “
when the energy provider enables a medium voltage line,
for which it is working against the clock, and thus be able to reestablish the drinking water service to the Buenos Aires neighborhoods.”
The affected places are: Caballito, Flores, Floresta, Boedo, Balvanera, Almagro, Palermo, Nueva Pompeya, Parque Avellaneda, Parque Chacabuco, Parque Patricios, Recoleta, San Cristóbal, Villa Crespo, Villa Santa Rita and Villa Soldati;
and the Buenos Aires towns of Piñeyro (Avellaneda) and Valentín Alsina (Lanús).
Aysa shared a statement in which it details the work it is carrying out to alleviate the effects of Saturday's incident: "An important operation was arranged to deploy tankers in different hospitals, health centers, dialysis centers and neighborhoods affected after the fire in "the Edesur substation that damaged the power supply to the Caballito Water Lift Station that supplies the neighborhoods in the south and west of the City of Buenos Aires."
Caballito: fire, thousands of users without electricity and without water.
The Hospital del Quemado was one of the centers assisted by the three trucks arranged in the area, of the 28 tank trucks that Aysa has to provide alternative drinking water service to users sensitive to eventualities.
In addition, Julián Donadon, the company's Energy Manager, detailed how the reconnection work went.
"During the early hours of today, Aysa teams worked to move the mobile energy transformer substation located in the San Martín plant to the Caballito Elevator. In this way, and thanks to the acquisition of this equipment, Aysa could provide its own solution to normalize the drinking water service while the distributor restores power,” the statement highlighted.
Caballito: fire, thousands of users without electricity and without water.
In it, the reinforcement of four other lifting stations (Floresta - Constitución - Centro - Devoto) was appreciated so that the impact on the service could be reduced "although the heat wave and the length of the episode even in buildings that have reserve could generate an increase in claims due to lack of supply.”
The Buenos Aires Government reported through a statement that the operation continues to assist residents who are without electricity in Caballito.
He explained that from the Single Coordination and Control Center (CUCC) they are working together with the Emergency and Fire Departments, filling
water tanks in buildings without electricity
and connecting generating sets to their water pumps (until now 19).He declared that assistance with
generator sets
is being provided to electro-dependent people
, prioritizing those who need respiratory assistance.
In addition, health centers were assisted with generator sets.
Help was provided to get people in and out of buildings without power supply;
Coordination between telephone lines 103 and 911 was promoted to respond to the type of assistance detailed above;
preventive patrol was reinforced in the area;
Capsules from the DIR (Rapid Intervention Division) and Citizen Security personnel were incorporated starting Saturday night.
Regarding the reorganization of traffic due to the lack of traffic lights in the entire radius of affected blocks, the City Government said that the Traffic Agent Corps is present
at the most critical intersections
to organize traffic and avoid possible accidents.
He emphasized that there are troops on Av. José María Moreno and Av. Asamble, Av. Rivadavia and Campichuelo, Venezuela and Av. La Plata, Rosario and Av. José María Moreno, among others.
MG