What happened when the lights went out in Spain

A major power outage across the Iberian peninsula caused panic and unexpected joy as people rediscovered simplicity, resilience and community

The first sign of trouble was during a fight with the toaster.

No matter how many times I tried to get the slices to stay down they just clacked back up. I tried the coffee machine, the phone charger, the lights. Nothing worked.

‘Uh oh,’ I thought, because I had just ‘fixed’ an electric outlet in a bedroom. ‘I’ve gone and blown the electrics!’

No breakers were tripped in the box, though, and then I heard a couple of neighbours out in the street asking each other if they’d lost power.

‘Oh no!’ I thought again. ‘I’ve gone and blown out the whole damn street, is that even possible?’

My mobile phone didn’t work - no calls, no WhatsApp, no SMS - because there was no network coverage. So I popped into my local bar to maybe use their WiFi as the staff watched ice creams melting in the fridge and the beers getting warm at lunchtime. They had no connection with the outside world either so I asked a police woman outside, who knew what was happening via the police radio.

It wasn’t the street, she told me, it was the entire little town up the hill from Barcelona. It wasn’t just the town, it was the city. It wasn’t just the city, it was all of Catalonia. It wasn’t just Catalonia, it was all of Spain and Portugal, bits of France… The Government in Madrid had convened an emergency meeting!

Had my dodgy DIY wiring blown out millions of homes, turned off traffic lights, stopped trains, trapped people in lifts?

It seemed, by what the authorities seemed to know about the actual cause, it was as likely a cause as any.

The neighbours began to gather outside on foldable chairs and various theories were shared. Hackers - specifically Russian hackers - were the preferred theory. The older neighbours spoke of a return to the days of the Cold War. Young or old, it had to be Vladimir Putin. It just had to be that James Bond villain. Why couldn’t Putin and his tangerine-faced pal in the White House just go away and leave the world alone?

It is very odd in this modern era to be entirely disconnected from the world. And it seems nuts - utterly insane - that even the communications network is essentially reliant upon the same power supply. Everything is plugged into one big feed, basically, with no back up? Is that even possible?

That’s insane. Nuts. Bonkers.

As always in these situations, the older folk were wiser.

Power cuts in the past were, of course, commonplace. No big deal, just get on with it. A retired neighbour, Sergi, went indoors and came back out with a load of snacks. Crisps and various nibbles. Jamón, fuet and chorizo. Fresh olives. Peanuts. None of those things needed a fridge.

Even beers, warm beers, but still.

The sun was out, it was a lovely sunny day. After the initial panic at being disconnected from the modern world, it was rather nice.

Learn the lessons form the older folk and just chill for a while. It was good to have a break from all the electronic noise.

Life goes on.

I have been a journalist for three decades, and I long ago came to realise - at a fundamental, human level - how warm and decent most people are.

I was in the north of Japan for a month after the tsunami in 2011, families whose homes had been washed away slept on the floor in school halls, they shared food and stood together to find a way forward.

I was in Iraq during the war for the BBC, and we connected a couple of families in the street to our generator. Yeah, the BBC needed power for its outside broadcasts and all that but those families also needed to keep their fridges working.

Despite all the grim events of the world - the sociopath politicians and warlords fanning the worst human urges, wars and natural disasters - humanity always, somehow, finds a way to shine through the darkness.

Most human beings are fundamentally kind, decent people.

It was nice to sit in the sun with the neighbours, it was lovely to see people knocking on doors and asking if they were alright, if they needed anything.

Then the kids came home from school and, for them, the loss of mobile connections and the Internet was a fate fairly close to death. No contact with the outside world. No way to check TikTok or Instagram.

But even the youngsters, after a while, began to kick footballs and just mess around as kids do.

It was a pain to lose the power but it wasn’t that bad.

The theories continued, as the hours ticked by - the clock on the church had stopped at 1235 or so, the old bells and clock are electrically powered these days too. Night came and the power was still off. Even a break from the light pollution was nice.

At bedtime, I couldn’t help thinking as I glanced over to the power socket I had ‘fixed’ just before the power went off … eek! … had my DIY electrics blown out two countries? It seemed as good a theory as any.