"Direct fire threat": electrical panels overheated in frozen Bodaibo

For more than two weeks after the utility failure, local residents have been forced to rely solely on space heaters for warmth. Vitimenergosbyt reported that critically high temperatures in electrical panels have been recorded in 18 buildings. This means they could ignite at any moment. Residents have been advised to hire a private electrician, apparently at their own expense.

As of the evening of February 11, heat had been restored to 40 buildings in the emergency zone. Of these, 24 were apartment buildings. A total of 615 people live in buildings with restored heat, the governor wrote. Igor Kobzev.

On the eve, a representative of the Russian Ministry of Construction Kyryll Kolmakov, who is in Bodaibo on a business trip, said that city residents complained about low water pressure several days before the water main froze. 

“We just needed to dump the water,” said Kolmakov. "The city's water supply and all boiler houses are operated by a municipal company. We, for our part, saw that the staff was insufficiently competent."

A Ministry of Construction representative declined to discuss the cause of the accident, pending the results of the Rostekhnadzor investigation. However, he clarified that the cause was not abnormally low temperatures.

Governor Kobzev previously announced an estimated timeframe for eliminating the consequences of the utility accident in Bodaibo. The earliest possible date is February 21.

Read about life in Russia's "golden" city, Bodaibo, in this NeMoskva article.