Fire near Salah Al-Din power station contained

SALAH AL-DIN — Iraq’s Ministry of Electricity said Tuesday that the Salah Al-Din power station continues to operate at its full capacity of 1,260 megawatts, confirming that production was not affected by a fire that broke out outside the facility.

In a statement, the ministry said that the fire was caused by burning piles of wood near the station’s perimeter and that the fire was “fully contained and extinguished without any impact on the plant’s operations.”

The ministry called on media outlets to “exercise accuracy in reporting news and rely on official sources for information.”

Much of Iraq was without electricity last Monday as extreme heat and heavy demand during the Arbaeen pilgrimage triggered a nationwide power outage.

The Ministry of Electricity said high load on the grid in Karbala and Babel governorates caused the shutdown of two main transmission lines, Musayyib–Babel 400 kV (lines 1 and 2). The sudden disconnection led to the loss of more than 6,000 megawatts from the national grid, destabilizing generation frequencies and forcing all power units offline.