Gets jolted awake when a transformer blows down and explodes a few yards from rig.
By: Scott Morgan
WASHINGTON A trucker dozing in his parked tractor-trailer Monday morning was jolted awake when a transformer blew down and exploded just a few yards away.
According to Washington Fire Chief Al Walker, at around 10:30 a.m. the wind blew down the transformer pole, located in a vacant lot on South Main Street in Windsor, behind the Garden State Fuel gas station on Route 130 South. The crash caused the transformer to explode, which then knocked out power to neighboring businesses.
The driver of the tractor-trailer, Thomas Shores, 46, of Martinsburg, Va., said he was resting in the cab of his truck after a haul from Winchester, Va., when the wires came down and draped his truck.
"I woke up and heard a ‘kaboom!’ " said Mr. Shores, who escaped unharmed.
The truck was not damaged.
Eyewitness Rich Morgano said he was buying a part for his tractor at Ralph’s Lawnmower store when "all hell broke loose." Mr. Morgano said by the time he ran to see what had happened, flames from the transformer had grown to "eight or 10 feet" and the smoke was so thick he could not see across the street.
Kevin Coyle, president of Central Millwork of New Jersey, an engineering firm located in the Windsor Industrial Park just beside the vacant lot, said the power went out just as his firm was fixing a problem with one of his computers. With the power out to everything ("even the toilets"), Mr. Coyle had to close his firm for the day and send everyone home.
The power stayed out for about an hour, according to Eileen Lubosco, owner of Ralph’s Lawnmower.
GPU Energy was called in to help clean up the site when the transformer burned out. There was no damage to any property.