Emergency Room Closure Following Transformer Fire in Brick Area

Emergency Room Closure Following Transformer Fire in Brick Area

Authorities stated Wednesday that a transformer fire along Route 88 caused power to be cut off to a portion of Brick Township on Tuesday, forcing the hospital to temporarily close its emergency room.

According to a hospital spokeswoman on Wednesday, Ocean University Medical Center began sending emergency patients to other hospitals at approximately 5:30 p.m. Tuesday while it ran on a generator.

According to her, the hospital has resumed regular operations after the power was restored at around 9:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

Brick Township police reported on Wednesday that several transformers experienced problems on Tuesday night, including the one that caught fire.

A police spokesperson stated that crews from Jersey Central Power & Light "were in the area for an extended period of time owing to various disturbances to the main transformers located on Burrsville Road."

JCP&L spokesman Christopher Hoenig stated that interruptions were caused by more than only the transformer fire.

According to Hoenig, the outage at Ocean University Medical Center, Leisure Village, and Brielle/Wall was caused by a wire that fell on higher voltage lines that supply the substations.

"We took a local load reduction in Pt. Pleasant that affected roughly 5,000 customers to preserve the electric system from additional damage due to the combined pressure of having numerous higher voltage lines down in relatively close proximity," Hoenig stated.

On Tuesday evening, around 4,500 residences and businesses in Mantoloking, Bay Head, Point Pleasant, and Point Pleasant Beach were impacted.

By 10 a.m. Wednesday, the FirstEnergy outages map showed that most affected areas had their power back.