Community Corner
Transformer Explosion and Fire Cause Outages in Wilmette and Kenilworth
Sparks lit up the night, then cut power to 3,300 Friday evening.
Parts of Wilmette and Kenilworth lost power around 11:30 p.m. Friday after a power transformer caught fire and sent showers of sparks down to the street below before it exploded with a thunderous boom. The transformer, which failed, was atop a utility pole on Poplar Avenue near downtown Wilmette.
ComEd Spokesperson Arlana Johnson said 3,300 area customers lost power as a result. Power was restored around midnight Friday. Johnson said the official cause of the outage was a cable failure, which can be caused by a transformer fire.
Carter Ruehrdanz and his family were finishing up their dinner nearby at when the transformer caught fire. He said the lights in the restaurant flickered, returned briefly, then went out for good.
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Ruehrdanz said he left the restaurant and saw the burning transformer, which was showering the street with sparks. He started recording the event on video, catching the moment the transformer exploded.
“It was flaming," he said. "I was concerned the flames would reach the wires that were above the transformer. Sparks were coming down, too."
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At one point, he said he was astonished to see a driver hesitate a moment before driving just feet away from the shower of sparks.
“They could have driven around the block to avoid it, but apparently they couldn’t be inconvenienced that much," he said. "It was amazing, this transformer is up there, in an arc fire, showering down sparks to the ground and they drive through it.”
A semi-truck driving south on Poplar between Central and Greenleaf Avenues paused to watch the spectacle, blocking the Wilmette Fire Department's access to the pole and transformer.
