Explosion at electric substation causes thousands to lose power in Westerville

WESTERVILLE, Ohio (WCMH) – An explosion in the city of Westerville caused thousands to lose power during the early hours of Tuesday morning.

According to Westerville police a transformer exploded at an electric substation in Westerville, in the 700 block of McCorkle Boulevard, near Maxtown Road, at around 2:40 a.m. AEP Ohio said that the outage was caused "by an issue with a piece of equipment that led to a pole fire."

At the time of the explosion over 4,200 people were without power and the City of Westerville reported that power outages were contained primarily to the northeast side of town, “due to a fire at WvilleElectric substation.”

As of 9:15 a.m., over 2,000 customers had power restored with another 1,300 expected to have power restored around 10:30 a.m., according to AEP Ohio.

Three intersections on Maxtown Road remain closed, including those at McCorkle Boulevard, Hilmar Drive and North Spring Road while crews continue to investigate.

Police said there is no active fire and no injuries were reported. Smoke was seen from the area of the substation and several residents reported via social media hearing a very loud boom and lights flashing as if it were continuous lightning.

Authorities urge all motorists to treat intersections with traffic lights as if it were a four-way stop.