Transformer fire causes widespread outages

Posted Friday, November 1, 2019 4:15 pm

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BRATTLEBORO — Nearly 7,000 Green Mountain Power customers lost electricity Friday after a power transformer on Putney Road caught fire.

"A piece of equipment at that substation broke off this morning during high winds, causing a fire," wrote Green Mountain Power spokeswoman Kristin Kelly, in an email to the Reformer.

Around 2,400 customers lost power around 10:25 a.m., and Kelly said additional lines affecting about 4,000 customers were shut down while crews worked. The latter regained power just after noon, and crews got alternate feeds to the former around 2 p.m.

Brattleboro Fire Chief Michael Bucossi said the fire in the transformer, just south of the Veterans Memorial Bridge on Route 5, was probably made worse by the intensity of the wind.

"When we arrived, the cabinet was fully involved in fire with heavy black smoke," he said.

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Bucossi said he and his firefighters could also hear the sound of electricity surging during the fire.

"There's a lot of electricity going through here," he said.

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Bucossi said a water line was rolled out upon arrival, but a decision was made to let the fire burn due to high-voltage electric equipment.

"Green Mountain Power arrived on the scene shortly after the arrival of the first fire apparatus and got the power killed," he said. "The fire burned out approximately 15 minutes after that."

Putney Road was closed for around 30 minutes. Technicians said they do not know how long it will take to replace the burned-out transformer.

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Green Mountain Power was busy across the state Friday, cleaning up wind damage and restoring power to more than 50,000 customers.

The electric company brought in about 100 line workers from out of state in advance of the storm. Crews were slowed by flooded and washed out roads, in some cases having to backtrack and find alternate routes to respond to power losses.

“Our number one priority is the safety of our customers and our employees and we urge everyone to stay away from downed power lines and downed trees. Due to conditions in the field, we expect this to be a multiday restoration effort into next week,” said Mari McClure, Green Mountain Power’s incoming president and CEO at a safety briefing for reporters in Waterbury. “On the minds and hearts of everyone at Green Mountain Power is to get power restored as quickly and as safely as possible for our customers.”

Bob Audette can be contacted at 802-254-2311, ext. 151, or raudette@reformer.com.