Substation fire reported to have briefly cut power to thousands, Texas
EIR-1149Provisional entry. Confirmed: a substation fire briefly cut power to thousands, as reported by a Waco, Texas newspaper in December 2017. Not yet known: the substation, the utility, the cause, the outage duration and whether anyone was hurt. Next update: 21 September 2026.
A local newspaper serving Waco, Texas reported in late December 2017 that a fire at an electrical substation left thousands of customers briefly without power. Only the headline and summary were available, so the substation's name and exact location, the utility involved, the cause of the fire, the outage duration, the emergency service response and whether anyone was injured are all not reported. The reference to the outage being brief is the only indication of its duration.
Not reported.
- Substation equipment fires can cut supply to thousands of customers even where the outage itself is short.
- Restoration plans and switching arrangements that allow load to be transferred quickly limit customer impact after a substation fire.
- Early public reports are often headline only, so operators publishing a short post-incident summary help others learn from the event.
Published 2026-09-21. Written from public reporting. Descriptive, not investigative. See the data accuracy disclaimer.