Christine Dempsey
Journal Inquirer, Manchester, Conn.
(TNS)
Dec. 11—HARTFORD — An underground electrical vault fire left more than 9,000 Hartford customers without power early Wednesday, forcing Hartford Hospital to operate on generators and knocking FOX61 off the air.
The underground fire was in the 50 block of Elm Street, said Mario Oquendo Jr., district chief and public information officer for the Hartford Fire Department. The area affected includes government buildings in addition to the hospital.
Eversource was able to find and isolate the burning electrical vault, and firefighters went in and extinguished the fire with dry chemical extinguishers, he said.
According to Eversource, there were 9,020 customers without power before 6:30 a.m., although the number dropped to 3,000 a short time later.
FOX61 was knocked off the air during the morning news, one staff member said. The TV station was back on the air at 10 a.m.
At about 5 a.m., the power went out for about 30 seconds, the assignment editor said. It came back on and then went out again, he said. Instead of local news, a prerecorded, syndicated program was broadcast.
Tina Varona, a spokesperson for Hartford Hospital, said Eversource reported an explosion and fire in a manhole on Elm Street at about 4 a.m.
“As a result, we are currently operating on generator power,” Varona said shortly after 7:30 a.m. “While most essential clinical functions are running, there are limitations like non-functioning elevators, garage gates, and public spaces.”
“We continue to assess the situation — hospital operations are currently operating normally and care to our patients is not affected,” she said.
Patients would be contacted directly if the power outage were to affect their scheduled surgeries, she said.
As of shortly before 10 a.m., power had been restored to about 8,400 of the 9,200 customers, according to Cristian Corza, a spokesperson for Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam.
He said Eversource was working on the “last little chunk” of customers without power, adding that it looked like the company was making good progress. City facilities were unaffected by the outage, Corza said.
Oquendo said Eversource likely would be working in the area for some time, he said.
What caused the fire was not yet known, he said.
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