Huge Bucharest plant blast

A powerful explosion and fire hit Bucharest’s CET Vest district heating plant late Monday, sending a fireball over the city’s western Militari district. (hotnews.ro) Romania’s emergency authorities said the fire started at electrical transformers inside the plant on Bulevardul Timișoara, and firefighters initially found open flames at two transformers. By about 00:50 to 00:55 on April 21, officials said the blaze no longer showed open flame and crews had shifted to cooling the area. (digi24.ro) Raed Arafat, head of the Department for Emergency Situations, said about 30 tonnes of oil were burning, and later updates said three transformers were affected in total. Authorities said there were no victims and no Ro-Alert was sent because the fire was judged to be away from homes, though residents nearby were told to keep windows closed. (hotnews.ro) The plant matters because CET Vest is part of Bucharest’s district heating system, which sends hot water and heat to apartment blocks across the capital. ELCEN says the site also feeds electricity into Romania’s national grid through seven 110-kilovolt lines. (elcen.ro) District heating plants work by making heat in one place and pushing it through large pipes to homes and buildings, instead of each building running its own boiler. At CET Vest, ELCEN says the main equipment runs on natural gas, while the transformers involved in the fire use oil for cooling and electrical insulation. (elcen.ro; hotnews.ro) Firefighters deployed water, foam and a nitrogen truck, and ISU Bucharest-Ilfov later added eight large-capacity water tankers after power to the facility was cut. Digi24 reported a brief voltage drop in several parts of Bucharest around 23:35 as the incident unfolded. (digi24.ro) CET Vest entered service in 1972 and was modernized in 2009 with a combined-cycle unit, making it the newest plant in ELCEN’s portfolio. ELCEN describes itself as Romania’s largest producer of thermal energy, and the Bucharest site is one of the capital’s core heat sources. (tvrinfo.ro; elcen.ro) The immediate next step is not rebuilding but inspection: officials first have to determine what failed at the transformers, whether nearby equipment was damaged, and whether heat and power output from the site can be restored safely. By early Tuesday, the fire was contained enough for crews to focus on preventing it from flaring again. (hotnews.ro; digi24.ro)