Cities, businesses were dark for about two hours on Monday
Georgia Power and local emergency services responded to an incident involving a tractor-trailer on Monday afternoon that led to a power outage that affected 1,140 Oglethorpe County residents, the cities of Lexington and Crawford, and businesses along Highway 78.
Lexington Fire Department chief George Spearing said the truck driver was driving behind the Subway and ran into wires, which then pulled a telephone pole to the ground.
When the transformers on the pole hit the ground, a small fire broke out, which Spearing said first responders were able to put out with a dry chemical.
“His truck pulled on all the wires, and then it ended up breaking the post in half,” said Rose Todd, an employee at Mathews Used Cars in the Lexington Auto Parts building near the scene of the incident. “Of course, there were three transformers on that pole. There’s oil everywhere. We’re seeing smoke, and the next thing we’re seeing fire.”
No one was hurt in the incident.
Employees of businesses in both cities and along Highway 78 could be seen outside their places of employment, and the stop light in Crawford was out.
The power went out around 3:10 p.m. Georgia Power had restored power to its customers around 5 p.m.
Todd said, luckily, the fire didn’t spread to nearby brush.
“I’m just glad it didn’t get out of hand, like it could have. It could have been so much worse,” she said.
Alex Perri is a master’s student in journalism at the University of Georgia. She previously worked at the Transylvania Times in Brevard, North Carolina.