Nearly 3,000 Con Edison customers without power on Staten Island

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Approximately 3,000 residents are without power on Staten Island early Sunday evening, following a report of a burning transformer.

The outage is currently affecting customers in and around parts of New Springville, Willowbrook and Bulls Head, according to Con Edison’s outage map, which says power is expected to be restored between 6:30 p.m. and 7 p.m.

The smell of smoke hung in the air at the corner of Rockland Avenue and Keating Place as dozens of residents emerged from their homes to watch Con Edison workers address the issue.

Resident Craig Hanft told the Advance/SILive.com that he was in the middle of cooking dinner when everything suddenly went black. The lights returned momentarily he said, but almost immediately died again.

The affected transformer appeared blackened, but there was no immediate flames or sparks as Con Ed surveyed the scene.

However, traffic lights on the neighboring streets were either completely out or flashing red.

This is a developing story and additional information will be posted as it becomes available.