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Russian media: Blackouts reported in Moscow following energy facility fire

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Russian media: Blackouts reported in Moscow following energy facility fire
The fire at a substation in Moscow on Jan. 4, 2024. (Mash/Telegram)

A fire erupted in a substation in Russia's capital on Jan. 4, causing electricity and heating outages in dozens of multi-story buildings amid freezing temperatures, Russian media reported.

The cause of the fire has not been reported. The incident took place only a few days after Russian attacks against Kyiv Oblast left 260,000 Ukrainian citizens temporarily without power.

The Russian Telegram news channel Mash reported that the fire erupted at a substation in northeastern Moscow at around 6 a.m. local time, causing outages in the municipal districts of Otradnoye, Bibirevo, as well as Northern and Southern Medvedkovo.

The temperature in the affected buildings had reportedly dropped to 10-15 degrees Celsius. According to Russian media, the night of Jan. 4 was the coldest in Moscow since the beginning of winter, with the temperatures dropping to minus 27.1 degrees.

At around 8:46, Mash reported that the fire had been extinguished and utility workers were working on site.

Most houses were switched to a backup circuit, the state-owned news agency RIA Novosti reported at around 9:10 a.m., adding that some 40 buildings will be connected within the next two hours.

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Martin Fornusek

Senior News Editor

Martin Fornusek is a news editor at the Kyiv Independent. He has previously worked as a news content editor at the media company Newsmatics and is a contributor to Euromaidan Press. He was also volunteering as an editor and translator at the Czech-language version of Ukraïner. Martin studied at Masaryk University in Brno, Czechia, holding a bachelor's degree in security studies and history and a master's degree in conflict and democracy studies.

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