By Natalie Bazinet
Staff Writer
CARIBOU — Many woke to blinking alarm clocks on Monday morning after an equipment failure caused power outages around 4 a.m. in the greater Caribou, Limestone and Fort Fairfield areas — most slept through the outage, as all power was restored by 5:31 a.m.
Maine Public Service (MPS) crews were dispatched at 4:07 a.m. after a piece of transmission line equipment broke from a pole located along the Access Highway near the new Caribou Connector overpass, causing a high-voltage power line to drop from the pole to the ground.
Director of Communications for MPS, Virginia Joles explained that the equipment failure was most likely caused by the extremely cold temperatures which allowed the metal pole band to snap and the wire to fall; temperatures dipped down to minus 9 degrees on Jan. 15 and the low reached 11 below zero the morning of the equipment failure, according to National Weather Service data.
Joles explained that the electrical fault was isolated and power was restored to customers in sections; power was restored to the 1,319 customers of the Pond Substation, (serving Limestone, Hamlin, Fort Fairfield and Caswell) by 5:01 a.m.; the 1,876 customers of the Otter Creek Substation (Caribou/Woodland, part of Fort Fairfield, Limestone, Caswell and Connor) by 5:02 a.m. and the remaining 364 customers of the Loring substation (serving the Commerce Centre and Connor) by 5:31 a.m.
As the cold resulted in a downed power line and there’s still a lot of winter left for Aroostook County, Joles is reminding the communities to be cautious around damaged electrical equipment and downed electric wires.
“Never drive over downed power lines,” she emphasized, adding that individuals should always assume that power lines are energized. “Even if they are not energized, downed lines can become entangled in your equipment or vehicle,” she added, stressing that individuals should never touch a power line.
