Lightning hits power station, blacks out Baku

PanARMENIAN.Net - Lightning caused a fire at a power station in Azerbaijan on Friday, Sept 28, blacking out the capital Baku and other parts of the country, halting oil refineries, officials said.

According to a Reuters report, outages left Baku without power for two hours and delayed the opening of the Caspian Sea coast city's subway system, prompting commuters to pack buses in a chaotic rush hour.

Production at offshore oil wells was not affected because they have their own power sources but refineries stopped operations for two hours, a spokesman for state oil company SOCAR said.

The Emergencies Ministry said the fire broke out shortly before 7 am (10 pm EDT on Thursday) at the Mingechevir station, which supplies power to about a third of the country of 9.5 million in the South Caucasus.

A reserve line was switched on, restoring power to Baku and Mingechevir in western Azerbaijan, where the power station is located.