The intentional fire of an electrical transformer caused a new massive blackout in southern France in the early hours of Sunday. More than 45,000 homes in Nice and surrounding areas were affected, a day after several similar incidents left 160,000 people without electricity in Cannes just hours before the end of the film festival.
"I strongly denounce these malicious acts that are affecting our country," wrote the mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, on his X account, who has requested help from the government to protect "other sensitive electrical installations" susceptible to sabotage.
"All our resources have been mobilized to identify, interrogate, and bring to justice the perpetrators of these acts," emphasized the night before the prefect of the Alpes-Maritimes region, Laurent Hottieaux, who warned that it is too early to determine if all the sabotages were committed by the same individuals or if they were coordinated.
The Grasse prosecutor, Damien Sarvazeix, confirmed that the cause of the blackouts was "malicious acts," announced the opening of a criminal investigation, and provided unequivocal evidence: three of the four pillars of a high-voltage tower in the town were sawed off in the early hours of Saturday.
So far, no official information has been released about the motive or the alleged perpetrators. Éric Ciotti, deputy for Alpes-Maritimes and former leader of The Republicans, pointed to the hypothesis of "a deliberate action with terrorist purposes," possibly related to drug trafficking. Ciotti demanded "transparency in the investigation and a quick response."
The first "spark" occurred at 2 a.m. on Saturday in the town of Tanneron in Var, about thirty kilometers from Cannes, with the fire at an electrical substation that prompted the intervention of up to seven fire trucks. Another fire was detected almost simultaneously on high-voltage poles in the towns of Villeneuve-Loubet, Mougins, and Cagnes-sur-Mer
The French electricity network operator RTE worked tirelessly on Saturday to restore power to the 160,000 affected homes and enable the closing ceremony of the Cannes Film Festival, which had to temporarily suspend screenings on Saturday. The situation had returned to normal when new incidents were detected, this time in the neighboring Nice, in Cagnes-sur-Mer, and Saint-Laurent-du-Var.
It is estimated that this time the blackout affected 45,000 homes, although the service was practically restored in its entirety by around 5:30 a.m., and the airport of the fifth largest French city was not affected, although public transportation experienced stops and incidents.
The deputy mayor of Nice, Gaël Nofri, confirmed that the blackout was caused by the fire at an electrical substation and that the firefighters discovered that the access door had been forced. "In view of what happened, we have decided to reinforce surveillance at all electrical facilities in the city," Nofri reported.