Probasco Road Transformer Explodes

The was at St. James Village for smoke in the hallway due to careless cooking Wednesday night when they were dispatched to a second call on Probasco Road for a transformer fire at about 8:15 p.m.

When Chief Barry Rashkin and Deputy Chief Eric Coran arrived on scene, they reported a working transformer fire. Fire crews that had finished ventilating the scene at St. James Village responded, as did a second fire crew who came directly from the firehouse. During that time weather had changed from rain to a lightening storm with hail and snow. Deputy Chief Coran moved a local resident's vehicle, which was parked directly under the transformer but was undamaged.

The heat of the flames caused the transformer to explode, and the fire burnt itself out soon after. Officials said power was rerouted and no outages had occurred, though JCP&L's website reported an outage to fewer than 500 residences in the Hightstown area as of 11:02 p.m. Wednesday.

Officials from the fire company, the and secured the scene until a crew from Jersey Central Power and Light arrived to address the problem. Probasco Road was temporarily closed, and no injuries were reported.