An explosion along a gas pipeline in eastern Damascus on Wednesday triggered a major fire and forced three key thermal power stations out of service, reducing electricity generation and threatening temporary load-shedding across Syria as emergency crews battle the blaze.
Pipeline Explosion Near Damascus Shuts Down Three Power Plants
A natural gas pipeline in the eastern Damascus countryside ruptured in an evening explosion on Wednesday, sending fire through the Tishreen thermal power plant’s supply line. The disruption immediately choked off fuel supplies to three of the country’s major generating facilities.
The state-run Syrian Electricity Company announced that Tishreen, Deir Ali, and Al-Nasiriya all halted operations as the fuel supply stopped. Ministry of Energy officials explained that the damaged line feeds the Tishreen plant in the Haran al-Awamid area east of the capital.
Emergency Response and Maintenance Efforts Underway
Civil defense crews rushed to the Haran al-Awamid sector near Damascus International Airport, where flames from the blast continued to burn late into the night. Plant maintenance technicians moved to seal off sections of the damaged line to contain the fire, while authorities confirmed no human casualties had been registered in the immediate aftermath.
Grid Impact and Temporary Power Rationing
The simultaneous loss of three major generating stations delivers a sharp blow to an already strained electrical grid. The electricity company warned that total power generation will drop significantly, forcing authorities to implement temporary increases in electricity rationing hours across the country until repair crews can restore the line and bring the shuttered facilities back online.
Preceding Pipeline Incidents Across the Energy Network
Wednesday’s explosion in the capital’s eastern countryside follows a separate blast roughly two days earlier that targeted a valve on the pipeline connecting Al-Shola to Deir ez-Zor in eastern Syria, which halted gas flows from the Jubaissa plant to power stations. While the Syrian Petroleum Company attributed that earlier eastern incident to sabotage, officials have not linked the two events or labeled the Damascus rural explosion as sabotage.
