Substation fire in Norwalk cuts power to thousands of Eversource customers
Aug 2020Published 22 Sept 2026Responsible editor: Chief Editor
- Where
- Substation on New Canaan Avenue in Norwalk, Connecticut
- Operator
- Eversource
- What
- Fire in elevated switch gear cabinet on 13,800 volt line
- Injuries
- None reported
- Cause
- Not reported
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What happened
An electrical substation on New Canaan Avenue in Norwalk, Connecticut, caught fire on the evening of 24 August 2020. Fire officials reported heavy fire visible from an elevated switch gear cabinet controlling a 13,800 volt transmission line. Eversource technicians shut down power to the area so firefighters could safely tackle the blaze. Firefighters used dry chemical extinguishers to knock down the fire before applying a CO2 extinguisher to cool the equipment.
Once the fire was extinguished, Eversource employees began restoring power that had been shut off for firefighting. At the peak of the outage, more than 16,000 Eversource customers in the city were without power, with over 6,000 still affected by around 9pm. No injuries were reported.
Contributing factors
The source does not state a root cause for the fire.
Lessons learned
- Eversource technicians shut down power before firefighters tackled the blaze at the substation.
- Dry chemical and CO2 extinguishers controlled fire in the elevated switch gear cabinet without further damage.
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Not yet known
- Root cause of the substation fire
- Age and model of the switch gear cabinet
- Total duration and cost of the outage
This entry is updated when these are reported. Get an alert for the next one like it.
Source
Other entries that name Norwalk
Other entries that name Eversource
Published 2026-09-22. Written from public reporting. Descriptive, not investigative. See the data accuracy disclaimer.
