[Anchor]
As many households keep their air conditioners running constantly due to the sweltering heat, surging electricity consumption has caused power outages in various places, leaving residents to endure sleepless nights in the tropical heat.
Reporter Dong Eunyeong has the story.
[Reporter]
Early this morning (August 4), an apartment complex in Nowon-gu, Seoul.
The exterior of the apartment is pitch black, and chairs are placed at the entrances of non-operational elevators to block access.
At around 9:45 PM yesterday, a blackout hit about 600 households across five buildings in this apartment complex.
Residents tried to endure the heat in their homes—where neither refrigerators nor even electric fans worked—by fanning themselves, but it was not enough.
With tropical night temperatures approaching 30°C (86°F) even in the middle of the night, residents took refuge in their cars,
[Apartment Resident : (Why are you staying in your car?) Because of the air conditioner. It's too hot. I'm planning to take a half-day off tomorrow morning, wash up, and go to work.]
or evacuated urgently to the apartment senior center or community center.
[Jang In-sung / Apartment Resident : I have to go to work tomorrow, and right now I'm feeling so stifled. It's so bewildering that I can't even put it into words.]
Residents, who experienced the exact same thing eight years ago, had to spend another sleepless night just like that day.
[Yoo Sang-jun / Apartment Resident : Power was cut off back then on a hot day just like today, and back then the elevators didn't work at all either, and we couldn't use air conditioners or fans, so we had to go to nearby marts, PC rooms, or convenience stores and leave our cell phones to charge....]
The district office stated that a transformer is believed to have blown due to the increase in electricity usage, and recovery work was completed at around 3:15 AM, about six hours after the blackout occurred.
Around the same time, a blackout also occurred in about 560 households at an apartment complex in Gangseo-gu, Seoul.
The cause was likewise an increase in electricity consumption.
[Management Office Official : Overload. Power consumption was high. Because the weather is hot, people used a lot of electricity all at once.]
Power was restored after about two hours, but residents had to suffer through the inconvenience.
Around 8:00 PM yesterday, about 5,000 households across four complexes in Pungmu-dong, Gimpo-si, Gyeonggi-do also experienced a blackout, leaving two residents trapped in an elevator before being rescued.
(Photojournalist : Lee Byung-joo | Video Editor : Kim Jong-tae)
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