Seoul Capital Area Searing in Heat… Consecutive Blackouts and Record Heat-Related Illnesses

[Anchor]

Blackouts continued overnight today, August 6. The number of heat-related illness patients in Seoul has reached a record high for this year for three consecutive days.

Today's first report is by reporter An Huijae.

[Reporter]

An apartment complex is enveloped in pitch-black darkness.

Inside a home heated by tropical nights, a single candle sits lonely on a dining table.

A report of a power outage at an apartment complex in Yeongtong-gu, Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, was received at around 11:50 PM last night.

The electricity supply was cut off to about 1,000 households across 12 buildings due to a sudden transformer malfunction.

Electricity was restored to only some households after about two hours of emergency repairs, and residents exhausted by the sweltering heat spent the night wide awake.

[Resident: It is extremely, extremely hot. Sweat is pouring out. They said it would take a long time to restore, and there was an unmanned coffee shop open 24 hours. So I sat there...]

[Resident: Since I got the call while sleeping, and asked "Why is it dark?", they said the power just went out. I can't sleep even for a moment if the air conditioner is turned off. It's unbearably hot.]

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Last night, a power outage also occurred at an apartment complex in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, due to an electrical equipment failure, which was restored around 12:00 AM early this morning.

No one was injured, but some 500 households had to endure inconvenience amid the scorching heat.

[Isn't there someone in the elevator? I was trapped inside and it opened. Thinking it might close again, I walked down.]

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At around 2:20 AM early this morning, a power outage accompanied by an explosion sound occurred at an apartment in Dobong-gu, Seoul.

Korea Electric Power Corporation stated that the outage appears to be due to an issue with the apartment complex's own transformer and that it has stepped in to support prompt restoration.

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Amid the raging heatwave, daily heat-related illness patients reported two days ago were tallied at 39 in Seoul and 67 in Gyeonggi Province.

Both are the highest figures recorded so far this year.

(Video by: Kim Seung-tae | Video Editing by: Yoon Tae-ho)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.