TOPSHAM — A power outage blacked out approximately 7,200 Central Maine Power customers in Brunswick, Topsham, Freeport and Harpswell on Wednesday, CMP spokeswoman Gail Rice said Wednesday.
The outage, which Rice said originated in Topsham, occurred shortly after 9:30 a.m. Power was restored shortly after 1 p.m.
Topsham Fire Chief Brian Stockdale said he was called to report of a transformer fire along Route 196 at about 9:30 a.m. Wednesday. Upon arrival, he determined it was not a transformer on fire but a problem with an insulator, which then created a problem all the way to West Brunswick.
Firefighters saw no flames and, “We didn’t even know which transformer it was,” Stockdale said.
He determined there was no smoke, flames or threat of electrocution.
Stockdale said witnesses noticed some flickering of lights and a large boom was reported, but the Topsham Fair Mall area experienced no loss of power. He said CMP responded quickly and determined the problem area, which was near the Meineke Car Care Center along Route 196.
Interim Topsham Police Chief Christopher Lewis said this morning that Topsham did not experience any issues with traffic lights out due to the power outage.
The outage disrupted traffic signals in parts of Brunswick and delayed publication of The Times Record by about four hours.
Calls to Central Maine Power were not returned by press time today.
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