Transformer fire at Green Mountain Power substation in Brattleboro cuts power

What happened

On 1 November 2019, a day of high winds, a fire broke out at a Green Mountain Power substation just south of the Veterans' Bridge on Putney Road (Route 5) in Brattleboro, Vermont, United States. Brattleboro firefighters were called at 10:25 a.m. and found a significant fire in a large power vault and transformer, with heavy black smoke. Crews laid out a hose line but let the fire burn because of the high-voltage equipment.

Green Mountain Power arrived shortly afterwards and cut the power to the site, and the fire burned out about 15 minutes later. About 2,400 customers lost power, and lines serving about 4,000 more were shut down while crews worked. Putney Road was closed for about 30 minutes and the outage lasted about two hours. Green Mountain Power began an investigation into the cause.

Contributing factors

Reporting said the fire was probably made worse by the strong wind. The cause was under investigation by Green Mountain Power.

Lessons learned

1. Firefighters should not apply water to energised high-voltage equipment; isolating the supply first, as here, lets the fire burn out safely.
2. Utilities should make sure fire services can reach a person who can de-energise a substation quickly, because the fire could only be dealt with once power was cut.
3. Substation equipment in exposed locations should be checked for its ability to withstand high winds, and storms that stretch crews across a wide area make spare capacity for substation faults important.

Source

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