The Brief · January 3, 2026
A deliberate fire cut power to about 40,000 Berlin households for four days
What happened
On 3 January 2026 a fire was set to high voltage and medium voltage cables at a site in Lichterfelde, southwest Berlin. More than 40,000 households lost power. Supply was not fully restored until 7 January, four days later. German prosecutors treated it as a suspected terrorist offence and no arrests had been made as of March 2026.
What it means for your household
This is the honest reason we say three days is a floor and not a ceiling. Not because a war is coming to your street, but because a single act of sabotage in a large European capital produced a four day outage in ordinary flats, in January, with no warning.
If your plan currently covers two days, make it cover four. That is one more pack of bottled water and one more day of food you already eat.