sally@y2kkitchen.com), April 02, 2000

Answers

I don't know what happened to my post - so here it is again:

Power Cut in Fairfax County

Sunday , April 2, 2000 ; C03

A stubborn and smoky fire in a major electrical substation in southern Fairfax County forced a temporary cutoff of electricity last night to as many as 45,000 homes and businesses, a Virginia Power spokeswoman said.

The fire began about 4:40 p.m. in one of three transformers at the substation at Roseland Drive and Route 123 and was still burning more than four hours later, said spokeswoman Le-Ha Anderson. She said heavy smoke was produced by burning mineral oil, used in the transformer as a coolant and insulator.

The cause of the fire was not immediately known, Anderson said. She said that the substation handles power at extremely high voltages and that officials decided to remove all three transformers from service while the fire was being fought. That, she said, made it necessary to cut off power to the substation's customers between 6 and 8:15 p.m., until those customers could be connected to another substation. Most were in the Fort Belvoir, Franconia and Gallows Road areas, she said.

A county fire department spokesman said firefighters were cutting an access road to the substation to combat the blaze. He said residents had been told to stay indoors with windows and doors closed to keep the smoke out.

-- Sally Strackbein (sally@y2kkitchen.com), April 02, 2000.

l ink

-- Sally Strackbein (sally@y2kkitchen.com), April 02, 2000.