Clean Up Continues After Power Surge Sparked Fires
FT. LAUDERDALE (CBS4) - Neighbors in the 1500 block of Northeast 3rd Avenue in Fort Lauderdale are cleaning up after a power surge caused a power line to come down and electrical boxes to explode in three homes.
"I was standing right here and all you see is this entire fence electricity wrapped around it," said Angel Rivera. "It was something like you see in a movie."
He said a power line crashed into his backyard, hit a chain-link fence and started a fire in some nearby trees.
"A power outage affected electric service to 284 customers. The outage was reported to FPL at 4:48 p.m. A restoration crew quickly responded and was on the scene at 5:01 p.m. Power was restored at 10:14 p.m.," according to a statement from FPL's Dave McDermitt.
Rivera said when the line came down, his first thought was his three-month-old son.
"That was the main thing, get outside the house, try to get in the front yard or something," said Rivera.
Sunday, Rivera was focused on getting his water and air conditioner back in business.
"I went to a friend's house and showered up. There was no water or light. We got the power on but it's just now my three month old son. We're all hot trying to get the AC fixed now," said Rivera.
His neighbor two doors down ran a generator while working to clean up the mess left behind when his water heater caught fire.
Neighbors said the only one injured was a dog who might have gotten burned on the electrically charged fence. The dog is expected to be okay.
