Tens of Thousands Lose Power in Berlin After Suspected Pylon Arson

Update: 10.09.2025

One day after a suspected arson attack on two high-voltage pylons in Berlin, thousands of households remain without power. As of early Wednesday morning, 20,000 customers were still affected by the outage, according to grid operator Stromnetz Berlin. Power is not expected to be restored to everyone until Thursday.

The fire department set up around a dozen contact points for the public. Numerous schools remained closed, and this continued into Wednesday. Stromnetz Berlin asked customers who had already been reconnected to reduce their electricity consumption. This could potentially allow more households to be reconnected to the grid sooner.

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A suspected act of arson on two high-voltage masts in Berlin left tens of thousands of households without electricity on Tuesday morning. The Berlin police indicated that they suspect deliberate fire-setting, as noted in a post on the social media platform X. The State Protection unit of the Berlin Criminal Police (LKA) has taken over the investigation.

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“Through arson on two high-voltage masts in Johannisthal, there was a power outage,” the police stated. According to the Berlin Fire Department, several power cables were damaged in the incident. The fire has since been extinguished, and officers from the Forensic and Criminal Police units were deployed to the scene.

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Johannisthal is a neighborhood in the Treptow-Köpenick district in the southeastern part of the city. The network operator Stromnetz Berlin reported that approximately 50,000 customers were affected, while the fire department estimated the number of impacted households at around 43,000.

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When electricity will be fully restored to households and businesses remains unclear. The outage also caused partial disruptions to public transport, and traffic lights were out of service in some areas.

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