An electrical fire broke out at the corner of 41st and Walnut streets Friday afternoon, the second time in a week that a fire has occurred near that intersection.
Seventy customers living near the 4000 block of Walnut Street lost power until 6:00 a.m Saturday morning because of the incident, said PECO spokesman Ben Armstrong.
The fire, which started at about 4:25 p.m., quickly spread up an electrical pole on the corner.
"I looked out my window and saw smoke everywhere," said College senior Jessica Rotman, who lives at 4044 Walnut St.
"Police were telling people to get out of the parking lot next to our building, so we figured we should leave the building too."
Armstrong said the outage was caused by an underground cable failure, though the exact cause of the failure is unknown.
"Anything from moisture getting into the cable to an electrical overload could've caused the incident," he said.
Police arrived shortly after the start of the fire and secured the area by blocking off pedestrian and vehicle traffic near the intersection while officials extinguished the blaze.
PECO officials responded about 30 minutes after the fire, said Erin Mahon of Lee's Hoagie House, located at 4034 Walnut St.
A similar fire occurred last Monday night, also causing a power outage on the block.
College senior Simon Eth, who lives on the block, said he had been having problems with his electricity, with the power in his apartment also going out Thursday.
"I'm holding PECO responsible," he said. "They promised me [Friday] morning that they'd fix it, but this is the second time in two days that the power's been out."
Armstrong said that he did not know if the two incidents were connected, but that PECO is "in the process of restringing new cable in the area."
"That should be done in a couple of days," he said. "Meanwhile, a generator is providing power to customers in the area."
