Thousands Lose Power After Fires at Madison Substations

Storyful
5 年前

Fires that broke out at two Madison Gas and Electric (MG&E) substations left thousands of people without power in downtown Madison, Wisconsin, on the morning of July 19, MG&E said.

Two MG&E substations, each about 10 blocks from the State Capitol, were affected, the Madison Fire Department said. There were no injuries and the fires were extinguished, according to fire officials.

This video shows dark plumes of smoke billowing from the first fire, at 722 East Main Street, which MG&E said was possibly sparked by a “mechanical issue.”

The blazes caused outages for more than 11,600 customers on Friday morning, according to the MG&E website.

Citing witnesses, local media said City Hall “momentarily lost power” and the Capitol building lost power and was evacuated.

Outages affected the west side of Capitol Square to the Yahara River, MG&E said. The power outage also forced the early closure of the Madison City County Building and affected traffic lights in the area.

MG&E said at the time of writing that it has “no estimated time of restoration.” The utility also said it does not believe the fire was related to high temperatures in Madison, which was under an excessive heat warning with highs reaching the mid 90s. Credit: Ben Carlick via Storyful