VIDEO: Madison residents were startled early Sunday morning when fire trucks raced over to an electrical fire caused by a fallen tree. According to workers at the scene, the tree came down on power lines on Overbrook Road, sparking an electrical fire that also electrified a nearby gas main.
The Madison Police Department asked people nearby to avoid the area of Overbrook Road between Opening Hill Road and Colonial Road due to the gas leak. A shelter-in-place from earlier Sunday has since been lifted. An Eversource outage map showed that power in the area has been restored after 24 customers had reported outages earlier Sunday.
Chris Farmer, a homeowner on Overbrook Road, was one of the first to notice the problem. It was around 6 a.m. when Farmer called the fire department after his power went out. The power quickly came back on, but along with it came the smell of smoke. “There was electrical stuff on the ground where the natural gas pipe comes into my house, it was sparking because it had been energized because of the tree falling,” Farmer said.
Farmer used a fire extinguisher to put out the flames while waiting for the fire department to arrive. Local officials responded by shutting off power to the area and ordering residents to shelter in place while repairs were made.
Frank Proto, a nearby resident, couldn’t believe how quickly the situation unfolded. “Power outage, gas leak supposedly, lockdown, the whole day,” Proto said.
As crews from Eversource and Southern Connecticut Gas worked to make repairs, the smell of gas filled the neighborhood. Overbrook Road was closed off to traffic, with construction vehicles lining the street as work continued. Proto and Farmer both noted the unfortunate timing of the incident, which disrupted their Motherโs Day plans.
