Crime & Safety
Transformer Fire Knocks Out Power to Area
A blaze at a Bristol Road power transformer knocked out power to about 2000 people late Monday afternoon.
A blaze at a PECO substation in the 300 block of East Bristol Road in Lower Southampton has left about 1800 people without power on one of the summers hottest days. The outage is affecting homes, businesses and traffic signals in Lower Southampton, Middletown, and Bensalem.
PECO spokesperson Fred Maher said power should be restored to residents by dusk. Crews are working to divert power from other sections of the grid to make-up for the charred transformer.
Firefighters responded to the blaze shortly after 4 p.m. and reported heavy fire coming from the transformer, according to a report from the Breaking News Network.
People who work at businesses along Brownsville Road on the border of Bensalem and Lower Southampton sat outside during the outage.
"It's way to hot outside for the power to fail," said Jim Cox of the Trevose section of Bensalem.
Cox also said he tried to buy cold water bottles from the Wawa nearby but they were closed due to the outage.
Various traffic lights along Street Road in parts of Bensalem and Lower Southampton were dark, causing a dangerous traffic situtation for drivers.
Mary Jefferson, of Philadelphia, who was waiting for the bus along Brownsville Road, passed this advice along, "Everyone should just go home, open their bedroom window and sleep until the powers back on."