Man critically injured after copper theft attempt at Dunn Avenue substation, Nashville
May 2017Published 17 Sept 2026Responsible editor: Chief Editor
- Where
- Dunn Avenue substation, Nashville, Tennessee
- Operator
- Nashville Electric Service (NES)
- What
- Man cut ground wiring attempting copper theft, causing explosion
- Injuries
- Man suffered severe electrical burns, taken to hospital critical
- Cause
- Cutting ground wiring triggered explosion
Get the next one by email
Free alerts on grid infrastructure incidents in the United States, and an email when EIR-1035 is updated. No account needed; unsubscribe in one click.
Confirm your email and every substation and transformer incident on the register arrives at once as a spreadsheet (CSV), free.
Get a free sample brief Three complete verified records and the incidents-per-GW table, by email within a minute.
We will also email you about the register's paid records and plans, at most once a week and three times in all. You can stop these at any time. By signing up you agree to the privacy policy.
Companies named in the reporting of this entry (being named is not a finding of fault): Nashville Electric Service
What happened
Early on the morning of 23 May 2017, a man forced his way through a fence surrounding a Nashville Electric Service (NES) substation in Nashville, Tennessee. Police said he cut ground wiring in an apparent attempt to steal copper, which caused an explosion and severe electrical burns. A neighbour was woken by a loud explosion at about 5am, walked to the substation and saw the injured man; an eyewitness told the broadcaster he had seen the man on top of one of the transformers before he caught fire and began screaming.
Emergency services were called and the man was taken to hospital in critical but stable condition. The damage caused widespread outages from the substation, leaving more than 4,000 people in South Nashville without power. NES said security is of the utmost importance, that it has protocols in place to deter such activity as well as built-in redundancies within its system, and that it was cooperating with the police investigation. The man was not an NES employee. Reports referred to the site both as the Dunn Avenue substation and as a substation along Craighead Street.
Contributing factors
Unauthorised entry into a substation compound; cutting of ground wiring, reportedly in an attempt to steal copper, which police said triggered an explosion. Police said the same substation had been burgled previously.
Lessons learned
- Substations attract metal theft and need reinforced fencing plus intrusion detection to stop unauthorised entry.
- Sites with prior burglaries require security reassessment instead of repeated repairs after each intrusion.
- System redundancy and rapid isolation limit outage scale and reduce risk to intruders from electrical faults.
More lessons on theft, arson and site security, from every incident on the register.
Not yet known
- Exact model and age of substation equipment
- Duration of power outages
- Cost of damage and repairs
This entry is updated when these are reported. Get an alert for the next one like it.
Source
Other entries that name Nashville
Published 2026-09-17. Written from public reporting. Descriptive, not investigative. See the data accuracy disclaimer.
