Scorching Heat Triggers Blackouts in Seoul and Capital Area; Daily Heat-Related Illnesses Hit Record Highs

[Anchor]

Amid relentless heat waves continuing day and night, power outages struck various parts of the Seoul metropolitan area, causing major inconvenience for citizens. Daily numbers of heat-related illness patients in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province also recorded their highest figures of the year.

Here is a report by Cho Min-ki.

[Reporter]

An apartment complex is blanketed in pitch-black darkness.

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

Reports of a power outage at an apartment complex in Yeongtong-gu, Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, were received at around 11:50 PM last night (August 5).

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

Power was restored to only some households after about two hours of emergency repairs, and full restoration was not achieved until 8:30 AM today.

Residents exhausted by the sweltering heat spent the night wide awake.

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

[Resident: I got a call while sleeping and asked why it was so dark, and they said the power had just gone out. You can't sleep even for a moment if you turn off the air conditioner. It's unbearably hot.]

A power outage also occurred due to an electrical equipment failure at an apartment complex in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, last night, which was restored around midnight today.

No one was injured, but about 500 households had to suffer through the sweltering heat.

[Isn't there someone inside (the elevator)? I was trapped inside and it opened. I walked down because I was afraid it might close again.]

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

KEPCO stated that the outage appeared to be caused by a problem with the apartment's own transformer and that it provided support for prompt restoration.

As the heat wave runs rampant, the number of daily heat-related illness patients recorded yesterday reached 49 in Seoul and 70 in Gyeonggi Province.

Both figures are the highest of the year so far.

(Photo: Yonhap News)
(Video Shooting: Kim Seung-tae, Video Editing: Ahn Yeo-jin)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.