Grenoble metropolitan area: transformers set on fire, homes without electricity
France Bleu, June 13, 2024
Firefighters responded to several fires on the night of Wednesday June 12 to Thursday June 13 in the Grenoble metropolitan area. In La Tronche, but also near the Grand’Place shopping center in Grenoble, where several stores were without power. An investigation has been opened by the Grenoble public prosecutor’s office, and entrusted to the criminal investigation department, as the destruction of these two electrical substations is reminiscent of the wave of fires in Grenoble in recent years.
In fact, according to Grenoble public prosecutor Eric Vaillant, “the near-simultaneity of the fires at the two transformers, located some ten kilometers apart, suggests sabotage by the libertarian ultra-left. No claims have yet been made, but they aren’t always claimed.
A first fire on an electrical transformer broke out on avenue du Grand Sablon in La Tronche at 1.20 a.m., leaving 80 households without power. Enedis set up temporary generators at 8 a.m. to supply power to the nearby funeral home. These generators will provide power to the affected households until the work is completed. The work could last several days and cost several tens of thousands of euros.
Two hours later, at 3:17 a.m., at 21 avenue de l’Europe in Grenoble, a fire broke out in a high-voltage transformer. The fire started in this former EDF building, and the door was broken opened. “The site had been broken into a few days ago”, said the national police. This high-voltage substation supplies 15 other transformers in the area. Between 3,000 and 4,000 people are affected by the power cuts. These include the General Treasury and the Grand’Place shopping center. According to the site’s technical managers, the shopping center is equipped with an emergency power station, so the power supply was able to continue. Arson is the most likely cause.
Grenoble metropolitan area. Two electrical substations set on fire:
what we know
Le Dauphiné, June 13, 2024
Between 1 a.m. and 1:30 a.m., a 20,000-volt electrical transformer along Avenue du Grand Sablon in La Tronche literally exploded following a fire that was probably deliberate. A local woman, fortunately unharmed, had to be evacuated as a precautionary measure before the fire department put out the blaze. The street was closed to traffic during the fire-fighting operation, and the incident was investigated by the Grenoble police, who were also on site.
The fire deprived 80 customers of electricity until 8 a.m. on Thursday morning, when Enedis quickly brought three generators into action while waiting for the destroyed transformer to be replaced. The management of the nearby CHU Grenoble-Alpes hospital said that the fire had had no impact on the hospital’s operations.
This event was followed by a similar one a few dozen minutes later. At around 2:30 a.m., an electrical transformer substation in a building formerly belonging to EDF and located on a site currently being deconstructed at 21 avenue de l’Europe, Grenoble, was also set on fire.
This time, there seems to be no doubt that it was an act of malice: the door to the premises – which had been padlocked on Monday after several break-ins or attempted break-ins in the preceding days – was broken open by the arsonist(s). All the installation’s cables and circuit breakers were destroyed, cutting off 1,768 meters – both private and business – including the meter at the nearby Grand’Place shopping center.
GreenAlp’s on-call teams restored the power supply within an hour, and all affected households and businesses had power again shortly after 3 a.m. The Grenoble public prosecutor, Éric Vaillant, stated in a press release that an investigation had been opened, entrusted to police officers from Grenoble’s local criminal investigation department (SLPJ).
In 2022 and 2023, similar acts of sabotage attributed to the libertarian ultra-left
Investigators will necessarily be looking to see if these two fires can be linked to other fires deliberately set on electrical transformers in recent years in the département. The last two were set on the same night, at the end of May 2023, in the communes of Moirans and Izeaux.
Prior to this, in April 2022, a series of acts of sabotage of electrical installations attributed to libertarian groups had targeted an RTE substation in Froges, power lines under the Brignoud bridge that crosses the Isère between Villard-Bonnot and Crolles, and then an Enedis high-voltage source substation in Meylan.
The major high-tech companies in the Crolles basin and Inovallée, one of the Grenoble region’s main technology parks, seemed to be the saboteurs’ main targets at the time.
via: San non
Translated by Act for freedom now!