Heating crisis in Novosibirsk leaves residents struggling as outages persist
A resident of Novosibirsk, Denis, spoke with socialbites.ca about the persistent heating failures following an electrical accident that occurred seven days earlier. He described how a short warm spell yesterday briefly restored heat for a few hours, only for a new fault to interrupt the supply again. Denis noted that many homes are heated with gas stoves that operate around the clock, a situation he described as essential for survival amid the outages.
“The batteries are cold. After the first accident, there was no heating for seven days. Yesterday, heat returned for two hours, but it did not have time to warm the apartments before the supply was cut again. I read about another accident. There was no water for two days, but then it was restored. Having gas in the kitchen and four burners working non-stop keeps me going. It’s frightening, yet I don’t want to freeze. I am at home after surgery and using crutches due to a leg fracture. There is an electric heater in the living room. I closed the doors to two rooms; in the other rooms it feels like a fridge. When the cold becomes unbearable, hot water is a relief, and I use it to warm up. I’m still hopeful for genuine warmth to return.”
Another resident, Lydia, described a different pattern at her home. After the outage, heating reached nearly all rooms except for the heating riser itself. She noted that the morning temperature in her house hovered around 11 degrees Celsius, and efforts by various authorities did not yield improvements.
“I didn’t apply everywhere. I called the city’s housing and utilities office, and my daughter sent 150 calls and multiple online applications to the prosecutor’s office and to the district director. I filed two applications today. They say the application has been received and will be forwarded. They record your phone number, provide an application number, and that is all. I’m at work now, and there have been some visits; the corridor is a bit warm, but what about the kitchen? A woman living in the rooms beside our riser reports that everything is cold there as well. This morning the temperature was 11 degrees. After the first accident, all flats were connected to on-site heating. Heat was widespread everywhere except our riser. A locksmith visits once a day and then again on another day with the system turned off. Now it looks like the weekend will pass without any real relief. The first incident drew swift attention from the prosecutor’s office, and action followed. Yet, as the sixth day passes with food and life continuing inside the apartments but no visible improvement, concern grows.”
On January 11, a severe power outage in Novosibirsk left more than 200 buildings without heat and hot water. Boiling water spilled onto streets, pedestrian paths and tramways were flooded, causing traffic jams for kilometers. An investigation was opened into work performance and service provision that did not meet safety and health standards for consumers.
Officials in the Novosibirsk region announced on January 17 that a new electrical accident had left 200 houses without heat in the Leninsky district. The regional governor attributed the incident to an ongoing emergency from a week prior, explaining that the coolant in the network was released unexpectedly and the load on pipelines increased. In addition, five people sustained injuries when the heating main line fractured.
Earlier, residents of Novomoskovsk had asked for children in kindergartens to be dressed warmly in response to the power plant accident, underscoring the broad impact across communities connected to the regional energy grid.