Judge closes probe, finds no culprits in Taboadela blackout deaths
- A judge in Ourense has closed the criminal probe into the Taboadela deaths, ruling no person can be charged over the family’s generator poisoning. - Francisco Dacal, 81, Antonia Fernández, 77, and their 56-year-old son died after carbon monoxide built up from a generator used overnight. - The deaths followed Spain’s April 28, 2025 blackout, which cut power to millions across Iberia. (elpais.com)
A judge in Ourense has closed the criminal case over the deaths of three relatives in Taboadela, finding no grounds to charge anyone. (lavozdegalicia.es) The dead were Francisco Dacal, 81, his wife Antonia Fernández, 77, and their 56-year-old son, Francisco José. They were found on April 29, 2025, inside their home in Taboadela, about 14 kilometers from Ourense city. (lavozdegalicia.es) (elpais.com) Investigators concluded the family died from carbon monoxide poisoning after using a generator during the blackout that hit Spain and Portugal on April 28, 2025. The machine had been set up so a respirator needed by one of the victims could keep running. (lavozdegalicia.es) (europapress.es) Local reporting said the generator had been provided by the town hall, and the family later kept it in the lower part of the house with an opening toward the living area. That detail became central to questions about whether the deaths were a chain reaction from the blackout itself or from how the emergency equipment was used. (europapress.es) (g24.gal) The closure matters because the Taboadela deaths became one of the starkest human tolls linked to the Iberian blackout. El País reported that 36 million consumers in Spain and Portugal lost electricity when the system collapsed at 12:32 p.m. on April 28, 2025. (elpais.com) The blackout’s wider investigation also failed, for months, to pin responsibility on a single actor. A European grid inquiry later described the event as the most serious blackout in Europe in 20 years while avoiding direct blame. (europapress.es) In Taboadela, the deaths shook a small municipality that declared two days of official mourning. Neighbors described Francisco Dacal as a former electrician and former justice of the peace, and said the family was widely known in the village. (lavozdegalicia.es) Nearly a year later, the criminal file is shut, but the basic sequence is unchanged: a blackout, a generator, a respirator, and three deaths with no one charged. (lavozdegalicia.es)
