Incident follows another outage that occurred on Sunday morning, leaving 7000 without power.
By Kim Anderson
Sparkill, NY – A fire at an Orange & Rockland substation in Orangetown led to widespread power outages across the southern portion of Rockland County today, disrupting service for residents and businesses and prompting a wave of reports on social media from affected communities. Orange & Rockland’s outage resources and local reporting indicated that the incident was tied to a failure involving equipment at an O&R facility, though the utility had not publicly confirmed a full cause at the time of publication.
This is the second incident in less than one week; in a previous incident – approximately 7000 residents lost power in an overnight outage.
Posts on the Rockland Fires Facebook page, along with comments and updates from residents across the county, described outages in multiple areas as people reported losing electricity with little warning. As additional reports came in, residents from across southern Rockland began comparing outage conditions, restoration estimates, and the reach of the blackout. Orange & Rockland’s outage map also showed service interruptions across parts of Rockland County as crews worked to assess the damage and restore service.
In the middle of the response to the outage, advocacy group Data Center Crisis pointed to the substation fire as a possible sign of grid strain and suggested the incident may have been related to overload.
The incident also arrives at a time of heightened frustration with Orange & Rockland among many local residents. Over the past year, customers have repeatedly voiced anger online and in public over high utility bills, particularly after a punishing winter that brought subzero temperatures and heavy heating demands. Even as some recent company announcements have highlighted bill-relief and affordability efforts, many residents say their monthly costs remain too high and that confidence in the utility has continued to erode.
To compound issues, as reported by the Monsey Scoop, approximately 7000 residents suffered a power outage over the past weekend. Power was restored after a four hour effort by crews, who worked overnight to fix the issue.
As of now, emergency response and utility crews appear to be focused on restoring service and determining exactly what happened at the Orangetown substation. Officials have not publicly released definitive findings on the fire’s cause. More details are expected as Orange & Rockland and local authorities continue their assessment.
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