Major heating outage hits eastern Zagreb

The news in Croatian

1. istočan
   koji se nalazi na istoku ili dolazi s istoka ↩︎
2. grijanje  (n.)
   proces ili sustav zagrijavanja prostora ili vode ↩︎
3. toplovod  (m.)
   cijevni sustav kojim se vruća voda ili para dovodi do zgrada za grijanje ↩︎
4. stanar  (m.)
   osoba koja živi u stanu ili kući koja često nije u njezinom vlasništvu ↩︎
5. naselje  (n.)
   mjesto gdje ljudi žive, skup kuća ili zgrada ↩︎
6. strpljenje  (n.)
   sposobnost mirnog čekanja bez ljutnje ili nervoze ↩︎
7. istočan
   koji se nalazi na istoku ili dolazi s istoka ↩︎
8. grijanje  (n.)
   zagrijavanje prostora ili vode da bude toplo ↩︎
9. toplovod  (m.)
   cijevni sustav kojim se vruća voda ili para prenosi do zgrada radi grijanja ↩︎
10. stanar  (m.)
    osobe koje žive u stanu ili zgradi ↩︎
11. naselje  (n.)
    mjesto gdje žive ljudi, skup kuća i zgrada ↩︎
12. strpljenje  (n.)
    sposobnost mirnog čekanja bez ljutnje ili nervoze ↩︎

Translation

Text comprehension

Question 1: Why did many apartments in eastern Zagreb have no heating and hot water on Sunday morning?

Question 2: What is HEP Toplinarstvo doing to solve the problem?

Vocabulary

Croatian	English
istočan	eastern
grijanje  (n.)	heating
toplovod  (m.)	district heating pipeline
stanar  (m.)	tenant / resident
naselje  (n.)	settlement / residential area
strpljenje  (n.)	patience

Read the full story

Large parts of eastern Zagreb, including Novi Zagreb and several central neighbourhoods, were left without district heating and hot water on Sunday morning, 8 February, after a failure in the city’s eastern hot‑water pipeline network.

According to HEP Toplinarstvo, the company that operates Zagreb’s central heating system, the outage followed a sudden “trip” of the eastern section of the hot‑water grid in the early hours of the morning. The problem affected customers in Novi Zagreb and in neighbourhoods such as Vrbik, Martinovka, Cvjetno naselje, Kruge, Savica, Folnegovićevo naselje, Donji grad, Sigečica, Borovje, Ferenščica and Dubrava. Residents in areas like Sopot, Trnsko, Sloboština, Dugave, Središće, Zapruđe and Studentski grad in Dubrava also reported losing heating, and in some cases hot water.

Many citizens turned to social media to report cold radiators and to complain about the disruption. People from both the eastern districts and Novi Zagreb south of the River Sava described waking up to unheated flats on a winter Sunday, when most residents are at home.

HEP Toplinarstvo stated that all available field and engineering teams were sent out immediately to locate the fault, test the system and stabilise the network. Company adviser Jurica Brnas explained that the exact location of the technical failure had still not been identified during the day, which made it impossible to give a precise time when full heating supply would be restored.

Because of safety procedures, the company is bringing the system back gradually. Once a section of the network is checked and considered safe, hot water is slowly reintroduced into that part of the grid. HEP Toplinarstvo reported that supply for space heating and domestic hot water had already been restored in Cvjetno naselje, parts of Vrbik and Martinovka, and in Zapruđe, Sopot, Siget, Trnsko and parts of Središće. In the following hours, the company expected to normalise deliveries to Kruge, Borovje, Savica, Folnegovićevo naselje and Sigečica.

While technical crews continued with system testing, refilling the network and raising the temperature in the hot‑water pipes, HEP Toplinarstvo repeatedly asked residents for patience and understanding. The company stressed that the incident was an unplanned failure, not scheduled maintenance, and said it was working “step by step” to ensure that customers across the affected districts regain reliable heating and hot water once the network is fully stabilised.

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