An explosion at a temporary electrical unit in Derna, eastern Libya, caused a fire and significant power outages across several key areas of the city on Thursday, June 19, 2025.
According to the Electricity Distribution Authority in Derna, the blast occurred in a high-voltage ring unit at the “Milad Badr” station, located near the city’s port. The explosion led to a major fire that severely damaged cables and electrical equipment.
As a result, power was cut off from multiple vital districts including the port area, the amusement park, seafront neighborhoods, Army Street, and nearby areas.
Technical maintenance teams were immediately dispatched and have begun assessing the damage and repairing the affected infrastructure, the authority confirmed.
In a statement to Libyan media, Jad Al-Harir, Director of Derna’s Electricity Distribution Department, clarified that the incident was a minor technical malfunction in a temporary unit installed after the devastating floods that hit Derna in September 2023. He stressed that the explosion did not occur inside the port and resulted in no injuries or significant infrastructure losses.
The unit involved in the explosion—a five-way high-voltage ring switch connected to five cables—had been temporarily installed to restore electricity after the Milad Badr station was destroyed in the floods. It was located on a public street, away from homes and port facilities.
The fire caused partial damage to the five high-voltage cables, with each cable sustaining between one and one-and-a-half meters of damage. Al-Harir emphasized that the incident did not affect the national grid or wider power supply.
The installation was part of a broader recovery initiative overseen by the Derna Reconstruction Fund, under the direct supervision of its director, Engineer Belqasem Haftar.
