Fire at Jeddah power transmission station causes local power outages
Jan 2018Published 3 Nov 2026Responsible editor: Chief Editor
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What happened
A fire broke out at an electricity power transmission station in north Jeddah on a Monday morning in January 2018. Civil Defense teams were alerted at about 7:36 a.m., attended the scene and put out the fire. The fire disrupted power supply in several northern and western districts of the city, including Al-Shatie, Al-Nahdah, Al-Naeem, Muhammadiyah, Al-Nuzha, Al-Marwah, Al-Haramain Road and south Obhur, and caused some lifts in those districts to malfunction.
Civil Defense teams moved into the affected areas to carry out rescue operations. The source reports that no one was hurt. Saudi Electricity Co. apologised to customers for the disruption, attributing it to a technical failure of the electric network, and said service was restored within 20 minutes. Civil Defense opened an investigation into the cause of the fire.
Contributing factors
The source does not state the cause of the fire. Saudi Electricity Co. referred generally to a technical failure of the electric network. The Civil Defense investigation had not reported its findings at the time of the article.
Lessons learned
- Transmission station fires can disrupt supply across several districts at once, so operators should map which feeders and areas depend on a single station.
- Lifts and other building services that depend on the supply can stop during an outage, so emergency teams should plan for rescue work in affected buildings.
- Operators should publish the root cause of a fire once the investigation concludes, so customers and other utilities can learn from it.
More lessons on outages, backup supply and restoration, from every incident on the register.
Source
Published 2026-11-03. Written from public reporting. Descriptive, not investigative. See the data accuracy disclaimer.
