(Photo courtesy of Jim Floyd.)
An electrical component exploded in Petersburg’s downtown area at around 10:30 a.m. on July 10, sending parts of the community into a two-hour blackout. Virtually all affected homes and businesses had their lights back on by 12:30 p.m.
However, restoring power took a bit longer at the place where the blackout started.
The transformer blew up just outside the Hammer and Wikan hardware store on Main Street. A transformer is a big, cylindrical component that transfers electricity from one circuit to another.
Jim Floyd is the CEO of the store’s parent company, Hammer and Wikan Incorporated. He was going about his day at the hardware store when all of a sudden, he heard what he called: “a mild explosion.” He then went outside, where he saw smoke billowing out of the steel-and-cement underground vault that contained the defective transformer.
Petersburg Power and Light sent a crew to investigate and fix the problem. Karl Hagerman, Petersburg’s Utility Director, said that depending on the severity of the damage, it could take more than a day to restore power to the building.
Power was restored to the building at around 9 a.m. on the morning of July 11, and the convenience and hardware stores have reopened. Floyd said he’s just glad that nobody was hurt by the explosion.
