SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, July 8, 2018 (Gephardt Daily) — Crews battled a two-alarm blaze after an explosion at a downtown substation early Sunday morning that caused power to be knocked out for several blocks.
The fire at the substation at 120 S. West Temple, first reported at approximately 4:40 a.m., resulted in a loss of power including all traffic lights to the area of 100 South to 400 South and State Street to 300 West.
“The explosion ignited some material, the fire got going and came up through the roof, crews showed up, and it turned into a two-alarm fire,” Ryan Mellor, Division Chief for Salt Lake City Fire Department, told Gephardt Daily.
“Crews were hampered by the high power lines that come in and out of that building; that kind of hampered what our crews could do until we got someone here from power to make sure the power lines were off. That was probably more for safety for our guys than anything else.”
Crews knocked down the fire in approximately half an hour, then performed overhaul to make sure the fire was completely out.
There were no reported injuries as a result of the fire.
Mellor said the cause of the explosion is still under investigation.
Gephardt Daily will have more on this developing story as information is made available.
