FOX61 among thousands of power outages in Hartford

FOX61 among thousands of power outages in Hartford

A power outage early Wednesday morning left nearly 9,000 Eversource customers in downtown Hartford in the dark.

HARTFORD, Conn. — Thousands in downtown Hartford experienced power outages Wednesday morning, including at FOX61.

Eversource reported that just over 9,000 customers were without power as of 6:30 a.m. The power outage affected some buildings and streetlights in the Capitol Avenue and Broad Street neighborhoods and downtown, including Pearl Street. As of 9:45 a.m. the number has fallen to just over 1,000.

In a statement sent to FOX61, Eversource says they are working to restore power to the remaining affected customers, but that restoration likely will not occur until Wednesday afternoon due to the complexity of the underground system and the extent of the damage.

According to the Hartford Fire Department, the outage is due to a fire in an underground electrical vault in the area of ​​55 Elm Street. Hartford Hospital also had emergency power after the outage.

The hospital issued a statement on the situation and confirmed that generator power was available following the shutdown of both service lines to the hospital.

“That’s why we’re currently working with generator power. While most essential clinical functions are running, there are limitations such as non-functioning elevators, garage doors and public spaces,” the hospital said in its statement. “We continue to assess the situation – hospital operations are currently running normally and care for our patients is not affected.”

Fire officials said Eversource isolated the electrical vault and firefighters were able to enter and extinguish the flames using dry chemical fire extinguishers. It is not known what started the fire or how long the outage will last, officials said.

It is unknown when power will be restored.

This is a developing story.

Jennifer Glatz is a digital content producer at FOX61 News. She can be reached at [email protected].

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