A large-scale fire leaves several municipalities in Artemisa without electricity.

A large-scale fire broke out in one of the transformers at the Zayas substation in Artemisa, leaving several municipalities in that province without electricity.

A report from the National Television News in Cuba (NTV) indicated that four municipalities in Artemisa had their electricity service affected since Friday afternoon, when the events occurred.

The official media outlet described the disruptions caused by the flames as a "major breakdown." Firefighters and technicians from the Electrical Company were deployed to the substation located in the municipality of Mariel.

"The impact caused by the damage to the transformer at the substation is one of the subtransmission lines that leave the substation to supply power to the different distribution substations, which failed at various points," explained Engineer Iscander Morales Suárez, general director of the Electric Company of Artemisa.

According to the executive, the short circuit affected the substation's protections, causing the transformer to catch fire.

Today we are working with 10 teams. Each team is responsible for fixing a specific failure. We will work together on the recovery of a transformer here at the substation, which is almost ready to be normalized, and we will work until it is resolved," added Morales Suárez.

Furthermore, he assured that the service would be gradually restored, "based on the system assimilating the load." At the same time, he asked the population for "trust" and explained that the restoration work at the substation is being carried out with "support from qualified personnel from Havana for everything related to the secondary part."

Images sent to CiberCuba showed the extent of the fire that broke out at the Zayas electric substation. According to the NTV report, the Fire Department's actions prevented major damages at the site.

At the end of April, four towns were left without electricity due to a fire that affected a power supply line in the province of Villa Clara. As a result, the towns of La Ceniza, Manajanabo, Miller, and Falcón were left without service, but they received electricity through the Placetas substation.

In June 2023, a fire that broke out in an electrical substation in Pinar del Río left half of that territory without electricity service. The Cuban Electric Union (UNE) reported that the issue originated from a fault in a current transformer in the 110 KV substation.