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Brian said that an overhead power line that provides electricity to his home suffered damage during ‘Storm Helios’ at around 9pm on Friday night and published footage of the moment the blast occurred.

He reported the incident to Enemalta and, after six hours without a response, tried calling their customer care line, but to no avail.

“How do you expect people to contact you by telephone if the telephone doesn’t work? How hasn’t this been addressed yet?” he questioned.

Brian said he finally managed to get through to Enemalta on Saturday at around 11pm, where an official informed him that a worker would be visiting him that night but that he would have to open the door for him.

“The fool that I was, I stayed up on the sofa waiting for them but no one turned up,” he said. “On Sunday, I spoke to their support team on Facebook and they said they will call me up. When they called me, they told me that my report was only filed on Sunday at 5am.”

Brian’s issue was finally resolved this morning, a whole three days after the electricity first went out.

“They arrived within ten minutes, and fixed the wire within ten minutes,” he said, going on to question whether it is possible that no Enemalta worker had that amount of time to spare over the weekend, particularly since he lives close to the Mosta distribution centre.

“If the person I spoke to on Saturday had the time to take me for a ride, why didn’t he have the time to come over and place a new wire, which was a ten-minute job in total?” he asked.

While Brian was able to cope, he was concerned about what would have happened had his 78-year-old father, who isn’t savvy when it comes to mobile phones and portable chargers, been at home alone.

“I was supposed to be going on holiday this weekend but had to cancel my plans due to an injury. Had I gone on holiday, my father would have spent four days at home lone without electricity. Do you think this is acceptable in 2023?”

He clarified that his criticism isn’t targeted at Enemalta’s workers but at the people in charge of the national energy company.

“I am not asking for personal compensation – I am young and can cope – but I find it so disgusting that we live in a country which is ready to leave pensioners without electricity for more than 48 hours. God knows how many people there are who might not have a family or a phone and who wouldn’t even have been able to contact Enemalta save by asking a neighbour.”

Cover photo: Left: The moment the overhead cable suffered damage last weekend, Right: The damaged cable, Inset: Energy Minister Miriam Dalli

Have you ever spent over 48 hours without electricity?