Former Federal Minister for Family Affairs Kristina Schröder (CDU) warned of a catastrophe in connection with the blackout in south-west Berlin: ‘35,000 households without electricity for five days will foreseeably result in hundreds to thousands of fatalities!’ she wrote on X. Following the arson attack by left-wing extremists on a cable bridge, tens of thousands of households will remain without power until at least Thursday.
It is still unclear how many people live in the flats and houses. Estimates range from 65,000 to 100,000. The blackout coincides with deep frost and up to ten centimetres of fresh snow. On Saturday, it snowed heavily in the area throughout the day. Temperatures remain below freezing, dropping to minus six degrees on Saturday night.
Some households were able to have their electricity restored more quickly. According to Stromnetz Berlin, 7,000 households and 150 commercial customers in parts of the Lichterfelde district had their power restored during the night. However, 3,000 homes there are still without power.
According to the state-owned company, at least 37,400 of the original 44,400 affected customers are still without electricity. And with freezing temperatures forecast to continue, this situation is expected to remain unchanged until at least Thursday. Repair work following the attack is expected to take that long. This could have devastating consequences for residents of the Zehlendorf, Nikolaussee, Wannsee and parts of Lichterfelde districts. Temperatures in Berlin are not expected to rise above freezing until Friday.
In an interview with the weekly newspaper JUNGE FREIHEIT, residents fear that looting could occur if they leave their homes and leave them in complete darkness. This is because alarm systems are also no longer working. Lichterfelde is also home to the so-called Thermometer Estate – a conurbation with numerous high-rise buildings.
A resident in the directly adjacent single-family home area said that a problematic clientele lived there, including numerous young men who came from Arab countries. No one knew how they would react to the situation. He and some of his neighbours feared the worst, he said. The emergency shelters that had been set up were therefore not an alternative. Like many others, he wanted to stay and guard his own home.
Former minister Schröder called on the Berlin authorities to knock on the doors of every affected household in Berlin by today, Sunday, at the latest, to ask ‘what help is needed’. If there were not enough personnel available, she said, consideration should be given to calling in the German Armed Forces. Berlin’s Governing Mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) has not yet visited the affected areas. Only Economics Minister Franziska Giffey (SPD) was on site on Saturday.
Due to the power and heating failure at sub-zero temperatures, it is also possible that water pipes could burst. This means that many homes could remain uninhabitable even after the power failure. A self-proclaimed civil defence expert who calls himself “X Cat” on X points out to the residents that they have a ‘so-called duty to minimise damage’ with regard to possible damage.
According to this, policyholders must check the buildings, ‘shut off water pipes or drain pipes and seek help, for example from an emergency service, the property management company or the owner’. He warns: ‘If a water pipe bursts simply because nothing was done despite the foreseeable frost, the insurance company can reduce or completely refuse payment.’
The left-wing extremist organisation ‘Vulkangruppe’, notorious for years for attacks on critical infrastructure, has since claimed responsibility for the arson attack on the cable bridge that caused the blackout. Their “sympathy” for homeowners in affluent neighbourhoods is ‘limited’, according to their letter of confession.