Bucharest mayor accuses the Govt. of “sabotaging” the city’s central heating system

Two of Bucharest’s six districts were left without hot water and central heating after a failure of the heating distribution network on Friday night.

Bucharest’s Social Democrat mayor Gabriela Firea accused on Saturday a "sabotage" of the Bucharest Power Plant (ELCEN), which is controlled by the Liberal Government. She blamed ELCEN for having delivered to the municipal distribution network water at a temperature well above the requirements, which damaged the distribution network, local Hotnews.ro reported.

The manager of heat distribution company Termoenergetica, Alexandru Burghiu, also supported the sabotage scenario: “It is abnormal for this to happen,” he said.

Meanwhile, ELCEN said that the problem is the city’s heating distribution network, which is on the verge of collapse, and accused the City Hall of having failed to perform the necessary repairs. The Bucharest municipality pushed into bankruptcy former heating distribution company RADET causing significant losses to ELCEN, then transferred the distribution activity to a brand new company, Termoenergetica, which is also late in paying its bills to ELCEN.

The attacks between Bucharest mayor Gabriela Firea and her opponents have intensified in recent months as the local elections are closing in fast.

(Photo source: Facebook/Gabriela Firea)