Superior powerline fire quelled

A powerline connected to the home at 624 5th Street in Superior caught fire the evening of April 17, prompting a response from the Superior Volunteer Fire Department. 

SVFD Chief John Woodland said that when the call came in it was initially thought that the transformer had caught fire which would have been far more severe than just a line connected to the transformer catching. 

“We responded initially with a single engine and had backup from the Superior Ambulance,” Chief Woodland said. “We also made sure there was a call made to the power company.” 

Upon arrival at the scene, Chief Woodland said there was still a length of line that was burning so the number one priority was keeping the public away in order to prevent injuries. 

Shortly after the SVFD arrived on scene, Bob Hardebeck from Northwestern Power responded and shut off the power before using a cherry-picker attached to his truck to secure the broken line. 

“As soon as everything was shut down the flame self-extinguished,” Chief Woodland said. “That is not a situation where we would normally put water on it until we absolutely knew all the power was dead.” 

The cause of the fire is still unknown but Woodland said it was likely that some sort of electrical problem between the house and the transformer occurred.

Chief Woodland added that with an electrical fire there is the potential for more severe problems to arise. 

“There are two potential issues, one is that the fire itself could ignite other things and cause the fire to spread,” Chief Woodland said. “Electrical problems can cause a fire in the house. The other potential problem is that if you have a live electrical wire on the ground it can obviously electrocute people as well.” 

According to Chief Woodland the incident was “pretty basic” and the volunteer firefighters preformed just as they were trained to.

“But we are always looking for more volunteers,” Chief Woodland said.