Explosion and electrical fire leads to nearly 9,200 power outages in Hartford, including hospital

Hartford Courant – Wednesday, December 11, 2024
By Justin Muszynski

An explosion and electrical fire led to several power outages in Hartford on Wednesday morning.

The incident occurred around 3:30 a.m. when an explosion and underground fire in a manhole on Elm Street required a power shutdown to most of the capital region, according to Eversource and Tina Varona, spokesperson for Hartford Hospital.

An Eversource spokesperson said the issue stemmed from a problem with customer-owned underground electric equipment on Elm Street which damaged the power company’s equipment and caused an underground fire. About 9,200 customers were initially without power.

According to the Hartford Fire Department, Eversource was able to isolate the electrical vault. Fire crews that responded to the scene were able to enter the manhole and extinguish the fire with dry chemical extinguishers.

Varona said the disruption affected both feeders to Hartford Hospital, leading to the facility operating with generator power.

“While most essential clinical functions are running, there are limitations like non-functioning elevators, garage gates and public spaces,” Varona said. “We continue to assess the situation — hospital operations are currently operating normally and care to our patients is not affected. Patients will be contacted directly if the power outage impacts their scheduled surgeries.

“The safety and care of our patients and colleagues remains our top priority as we work to navigate a power disruption to the City of Hartford including Hartford Hospital,” Varona said.

By the late morning hours, Eversource had restored power to about 8,400 customers, as crews remained on scene and worked to restore power to the remaining customers who were impacted.

A spokesperson for the power company said the restoration efforts were partially dependent on “customer equipment repairs.” The outages were expected to be restored by the afternoon hours based on the “level of damage, complexity of the underground network system and repairs,” the spokesperson said.

Restoration crews worked in collaboration with Hartford city and public safety officials.

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