Concept

2006 Ferentari riot

Summary
A small riot took place in Ferentari–Zăbrăuți area of Bucharest, Romania on the evening of November 14, 2006. Ferentari is Bucharest's poorest district, with a bad reputation with respect to crime. The riot took place after four Roma children were asphyxiated in the basement of an apartment block in the Zăbrăuți area on November 13, as a result of a fire caused by candles. The children had lived with their mother in their dwelling for more than two years, and were obliged to light the basement with candles as they had no access to electricity. According to the administrator of the apartment block, none of the building's inhabitants had formal access to electricity for four years, with many people connecting themselves illegally to the electricity grid. The riot occurred because Electrica, the electricity provider company, decided to cut the electricity of some blocks, due to energy theft and consumer debts. However, power outages occurred for several blocks, including few consumers without debts. In most flats there was no central heating and people were using electric radiators (which are costly to operate). There were also some apartments with air conditioners, so the total debts (not including the stolen energy) rose to €400,000. The stolen energy was estimated to €430,000 per month. According to the protesters, the local council of Sector 5 had repeatedly refused to authorize their re-connection to the grid. This led to around 200 inhabitants from the Zăbrăuți area to violently protest against their situation, by torching tires, blocking traffic in the area and breaking the window of a fire truck, while calling for the electricity supply to be restored. However, only 20% of the inhabitants of the area had any papers proving ownership or rent over the said flats, with the rest being squatters. The electricity provider was criticized for not cutting the energy in summer, so that people could make plans for winter.
About this result
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.