Boom… Then Outage Affecting Hundreds of NYSEG Customers in JC
Some residents and businesses in Johnson City had to do without air-conditioning and fans on one of the hottest days of the year.
More than 200 NYSEG customers on the village's North Side lost electric service around 1:30 Thursday afternoon. The heat index was close to 100 degrees at the time.
Fire marshal Bob Blakeslee was at the fire department headquarters on Harry L. Drive at the time. He said he heard a "boom."
A short time later, residents of a neighborhood a few blocks away called 911 to report a possible transformer fire or some sort of electrical problem.
Blakeslee said a high-voltage line came down on Fairview Street near North Arch Street.
Firefighters closed off a section of Fairview to keep people away from the downed line while NYSEG crews surveyed the situation.
Blakeslee said that a 35,000-volt line was involved. He said there appeared to have been a small fire in a tree when the line came down but the fire went out on its own.
According to NYSEG's website, 228 customers on parts of several streets were affected by the outage.
A NYSEG representative said it appeared "a transmission line fell on a distribution line, resulting in some blown transformers - which is what people probably heard."
Power was expected to be restored by 8 p.m. Thursday.
This story was updated to include information provided by NYSEG.
Contact WNBF News reporter Bob Joseph: bob@wnbf.com or (607) 772-8400 extension 233.
For breaking news and updates on developing stories, follow @BinghamtonNow on Twitter.
LOOK: Here are the 50 best beach towns in America
LOOK: What are the odds that these 50 totally random events will happen to you?
More From 99.1 The Whale
