A fire at Gibraltar power station caused by an explosion from a broken generator at Waterport Power Station on Sunday, April 20, 2014 cased major power cuts and extensive disruption of online gambling services across the territory.
Luckily, no one was harmed in the fire, but it disrupted and shut down a few online betting operations of firms like Ladbrokes, Betfred and William Hill that are based in Gibraltar. In addition, most of the people living of the British territory were also left without power.
According to local media reports, the generator caught fire and exploded because of mechanical failure.
Online gambling is very important for the territory and there are many international gambling operators that decide to base their operations in Gibraltar, mainly because of the low taxes. Because of the misfortunate circumstances many people couldn’t place bets online on a busy Easter Sunday when the UK Premier League football matches were being played.
Graham Sharpe a spokesperson at William Hill said that its services were off for about two and a half hours. “It’s just one of those events that nobody could have predicted,” he said to AFP.
The fire department immediately rushed to the scene when the fire explosion happened. The power station was quickly evacuated and the fire extinguished. After powered had been restored, Fabian Picardo, Gibraltar Chief Minister, thanked the emergency services for their quick response. “Finally, power is restored,” tweeted Picardo. “We must make sure that this never happens in future.”