WATCH: Huge blaze hits power station in California
A six-block radius in downtown Sacramento, the capital of California, has lost power as the result of a fire at an electrical substation. The blaze has caused the nearby county jail to go into lockdown.
The substation at 7th and H streets caught fire on Tuesday morning local time. A pillar of smoke went up into the sky as the immediate area lost power.
❗️Explosion at California Power SubstationA huge fire has broken out in downtown Sacramento, after an explosion at the substation.Firefighters are currently responding to the incident, as huge plumes of smoke rise into the sky. pic.twitter.com/OFNcSvYxEf
— RT (@RT_com) December 14, 2021
The main Sacramento County Jail, which is right across the road, went into lockdown “for staff and inmate safety,” the sheriff’s department said.
The nearby courthouse and county buildings were presumably also affected by the outage, as were all the traffic signals in the area.
Small interior fire has been contained. Crews still working to extinguish exterior fire in the yard of the substation pic.twitter.com/rJAOxmf7GF
— Sacramento Fire Department (@SacFirePIO) December 14, 2021
Light rail lines servicing the area have also been impacted, and the county has sent shuttle buses to help. The local fire department has been deployed to the scene. No injuries have been reported.
The cause of the fire is not yet known.
The substation is located next to the historic Old Folsom Powerhouse, a terminal for the power station that began operating in 1895, as one of the first alternating-current plants in North America. It was also the longest-operating plant, closing in 1952 to become a state monument.
Northern and central parts of California are still dealing with power outages caused by wind and rain storms that started over the weekend, and are forecast to continue throughout the week. Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) reportedly deployed almost 400 repair crews throughout the region.
