Power restored to 75% of customers in Wildwoods morning after fire causes outage - Press of Atlantic City

Power restored to 75% of customers in Wildwoods morning after fire causes outage

WILDWOOD — Over 75% of customers who lost power shortly after noon Friday have had it restored, Atlantic City Electric announced.

In an update shortly before 5 a.m. Saturday from company spokesperson Benjamin Armstrong, power was returned to 16,200 customers in the Wildwoods and that all customers are expected to have power by 3 p.m.

The outage was due to a fire at the company's Lake Avenue substation that started around noon Friday.

"Some customers may experience service interruptions today as crews continue to reroute power to restore service to all customers. We are making every effort to contact those customers before the interruption occurs," per a statement from the company.

"Crews worked through the night making repairs and installing temporary equipment that will be used to restore service to the 7,800 remaining customers. Customers can check our outage map or log into their account online or on our mobile app for the latest estimated restoration time for their outage.

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"We know this has been a challenging event for our customers and we are working safely and as quickly as possible to restore service for all customers. We appreciate our customers’ continued patience as we work to restore their service."

A fire at a substation caused parts of the Wildwoods to lose power Friday afternoon, according to police.

The fire originated in the small building on Lake Avenue. Atlantic City Electric was forced to shut down the substation, which impacted electrical service to about 24,000 customers in Wildwood and Wildwood Crest. Parts of Lower Township were impacted, too.

The fire began about noon. Police alerted the public to the fire at 12:26 p.m., and it was contained shortly after 1 p.m.. The cause of the fire was under investigation.

This is a developing story. Check back for more updates.

Contact John Russo: 609-272-7184

Twitter: @ACPress_Russo