A worn protective device at the Fayetteville West Substation failed late Monday (March 3), knocking out power for 1,826 Ozarks Electric customers, the utility said.
Crews were dispatched to the site after a fire was reported shortly before 10 p.m., but it was unclear Tuesday morning (March 4) whether there were any flames at the site, said spokeswoman Penny Storms. She said sparks flashed at the substation from the defective insulator.
By 10:45 p.m., power was restored to 1,100 households, Ozarks Electric said in a news release on Tuesday (March 4). The remaining customers had their power restored around midnight, the release states.
Residents in the area off Wedington Drive told police they heard explosions before the power went out.
The outages started around 9:30 p.m., with the electric company’s monitor showing about 100 households without electricity.
The temperature was below 20 degrees in Fayetteville when the outages began. Storms said the large number of customers using power Monday night might have contributed to the worn device’s failure.
The Fayetteville Fire Department initially responded to areas of the outage but canceled its calls when Ozarks Electric workers responded, police said.
