More than 1,000 households and businesses in Charlottesville were without power for hours Thursday evening after a transformer by the University of Virginia Medical Center was compromised and caught fire.
The outage, which started around 5 p.m. before power was restored around 8:30 p.m., primarily affected the Starr Hill and North Downtown neighborhoods, according to Dominion Energy, the area’s electricity provider.
At the outage’s peak, 1,108 Dominion customers were without power.
Although the public utility originally estimated power would be restored between 10 p.m. and 1 a.m., most customers’ lights flickered on by 8:30 p.m.
UVa issued an emergency alert not long after the outage was first reported saying that a transformer at the intersection of 11th and Lee streets by the university’s hospital had caught on fire.
Firefighters and police officers were dispatched to the scene, and the fire was extinguished around 7:30 p.m.
Source: www.dailyprogress.com