💧 Water and Power · U.S. Virgin Islands
Pole fire caused districtwide outage in St. Thomas-St. John on May 23
Official document: http://www.viwapa.vi/docs/default-source/default-document-library/05242021-pole-fire-resulted-in-sunday-night-district-wide-outage.pdf?sfvrsn=63009ee2_2
A pole fire in Subbase caused a districtwide electrical service interruption in the St. Thomas-St. John district on the night of May 23, 2021, according to the Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority.
WAPA said the fire damaged circuits tied to Feeders 7A and 8A and sent an electrical surge back to the Randolph Harley Power Plant, causing dispatched generators to trip. The fire on a double-circuit pole, located south of Nisky Shopping Center and north of Gramboko Hill, tripped the two feeders at 6:52 p.m. Power restoration began at 7:55 p.m., and service was restored to all customers by about 9 p.m.
WAPA said line crews isolated the burned pole, which snapped and fell, so the grid could be reconfigured and service restored to customers on Feeders 7A and 8A. The authority said crews were scheduled to return to the site on May 24, 2021, to determine possible causes of the fire, replace the pole and equipment, and restore both feeder circuits. WAPA said that work was not expected to interrupt service.
The Virgin Islands Fire Service assisted in extinguishing the fire.