A serious incident occurred at the CET Vest combined heat and power plant in western Bucharest. Late on April 20, a fire broke out at the facility after a powerful explosion, and thick plumes of black smoke rose above the city, visible from many kilometers away. Romanian emergency services dispatched numerous fire engines and rescue units to the scene. According to the information available so far, no fatalities or injuries were reported.
The latest findings indicate that the incident was not caused by a gas installation failure, but by an electrical malfunction. According to Romanian media reports citing ELCEN, the problem originated in a 6 kV station at CET Vest. Damage to the control panel for the protection systems reportedly triggered a cascading effect that spread to other parts of the infrastructure and caused the transformers to catch fire.
The scale of the failure turned out to be serious, although it did not lead to a prolonged blackout in the capital. In many parts of Bucharest, residents experienced a brief voltage drop at around 11:35 p.m., but electricity supplies to consumers were quickly stabilized. ELCEN maintains that the main production installations were not destroyed and that the power system in the western part of the city returned to normal operation.
A much bigger problem, however, emerged in the district heating system. CET Vest is one of the key sources of heat and electricity for Bucharest, so the failure immediately affected hot water supplies. Romanian media reported that thousands of apartments in sectors 1, 5, and 6 were left without hot water, while the official website of the CMTEB operator confirmed numerous disruptions directly linked to the incident at CTE Vest. Part of the load was temporarily taken over by the CET Grozăvești plant.
Firefighters continued extinguishing the blaze and cooling the infrastructure throughout the night. According to information released in the morning, the scale of the operation had been reduced, but several units remained on site to monitor the area. Emergency services also urged residents of nearby districts to keep their windows closed because of the smoke. Investigators and technical experts will now determine the full sequence of the failure and assess the extent of the damage at one of the Romanian capital’s more important energy facilities.
