Many apartments in the Reykjavík suburb of Árbaer suffered damages when hot water leaked from pipes last night. The Capital Region Fire Department tended to at least 15 calls where hot water had to be drained or pumped out of buildings.

The power plant on Hellisheidi that provides the capital with electricity and hot water. Photo by Páll Stefánsson.

Many more calls for assistance were received but were canceled after the residents turned off the hot water intake to their houses, visir.is reports.

No serious single cases of damages have been reported but rather many small ones so the total damage is significant. No one was harmed because of the hot water leak.

According to Reykjavík Energy (OR), the leak was caused by a failure in the electric system after it suffered a blow and hot water pumps were disconnected.

Consequently there were pressure fluctuations in the heating utility, which some pipes weren’t able to handle. For the same reason there was a drop in pressure in the Thorlákshöfn heating utility last night.

OR’s employees worked on repairs all through the night.

According to ruv.is, the control mechanism of OR’s Hellisheidarvirkjun power plant was struck by lightning between 6 and 7 am on Monday morning. One of the plant’s five motors shut down and hot water production came to a halt.

Within an hour the electricity production was up and running but the damages caused to the hot water production had to be reviewed, a statement from OR on Monday read.