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Firefighters responded to approximately 40 calls on Monday morning in Waltham, which roughly coincided with a power surge and outage that affected thousands of customers in the city. Rccb Mcb
Not all of the calls involved fires, Chief Andrew Mullin said, but one building at 32 School Ave. did catch fire at approximately 8:43 a.m. One person was inside the two-family when the fire began but no injuries were reported.
The cause of that fire remains under investigation.
Some of the other reported incidents involved electrical issues like damage to a power strip. Several traffic lights in the community were also out.
"I woke up to crazy noises, lights flashing on and off," said Tom Hart, a Waltham resident. "My wife told me there had just been what sounded like a gunshot and it blew out certain appliances in the house."
"It's troubling," Waltham mayor Jeannette McCarthy said. "We have to get to the bottom of this because we can't keep having all these power surges. It affects a lot of people, blows out all the traffic lights. Blows out everything."
Eversource spokesman Chris McKinnon said the company responded to a power outage just before 8:30 a.m. and is working to determine an exact cause of the outage. He said power was restored to almost all of the 6,000 affected customers within approximately one hour.
"Our crews, working with the City of Waltham’s wire inspector team, fire department and private electricians who we hired, went door-to-door and visited the homes of customers who reported any issues or concerns following this morning’s power outage and voltage surge. As part of that process, we inspected the electric equipment both inside and outside of those homes to ensure that our customers are safe," McKinnon said in a statement.
According to the Weston Fire Department, which reported sending an engine to help cover a station in Waltham, the Waltham Fire Department was "responding to numerous incidents while they deal with a major power issue."
The Belmont Firefighters Union also tweeted that one of their engines was dispatched to Waltham.
In October, another power issue in Waltham caused transformer fires, light signal failures and smoke in buildings. At the time, Eversource said a high voltage and equipment issue affected the utility company's Pine Street and Main Street substations.
McKinnon said Eversource customers in Waltham who have additional concerns should contact the company directly. According to McKinnon, Eversource crews would remain in the area Monday night to address any concerns as they arise.
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