CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Fourteen vehicles parked in an employee parking lot at CAMC Memorial Tuesday morning were destroyed when a power line fell on top of them sparking a fire.
Charleston Fire Department Captain David Hodges said the fire had its challenges for firefighters when they arrived on the scene at just after 9:30 a.m. because the line was still active and the energy had spread to the vehicles.
“Once we arrived there were numerous vehicles that were on fire and the fire continued to spread” said Hodges. “We unable to fight it in our traditional means due to it (the line) being energized and the vehicles being energized.”
Hodges said they did try to prevent some of the exposed vehicles until the power could be cut off.
There were no injuries.
Appalachian Power Company spokesperson Karen Wissing said an investigation is underway into what caused the line to come down. She said a power pole did not fall.
Wissing said it was a 12kV line that fell. She said a new line was installed. All power in that area of Kanawha City was back on by 3 p.m.
CAMC Memorial had to go on backup generator power for about four hours. The hospital cancelled outpatient services for the day.
CAMC tweeted, “Memorial Hospital campus is currently on diversion due to a campus wide power outage. All procedures are on hold at this time. All patients with non-emergency (outpatient) visits, including imaging services, are cancelled. We will contact you to reschedule.”
Hodges said the fire was a lot different than most other fires.
“Fires like this are a learning experience for us,” Hodges said. “The Fire Marshals Office and the Charleston Fire Department is going to continue to work with AEP to determine the cause of it, this is definitely a training fire for us.”
MetroNews reporter Katherine Skeldon contributed to this story.