A tree snapped and fell onto the street on Avalon Drive in Bethesda, Maryland during Sunday’s storms, taking down wires and causing neighbors to lose power.
“We lost power and looked outside the window and saw lots of smoke, and there were flames in the street,” said Diana Blumenfeld, who lives on Avalon Drive. “And then we could see fire outside our window, and initially it looked like the house two houses down was on fire, but it was actually the tree.”
Montgomery County fire said around 5 p.m. Sunday, they got a call from a homeowner reporting a tree got hit by lightning. When crews got to Avalon Drive, they found a tree on fire.
“The firefighters were on it before anybody even realized it even happened, so they were amazing like they always are,” Blumenfeld said. “Eventually the rain put the fire out and the branch fell, broke the rest of the wires, there was a big explosion, the rest of the power went out.”
Montgomery fire officials say when the tree branch came down on the wires, it caused a transformer to blow up, and homes in the area to lose power. Blumenfeld said her family is already used to power going out during storms.
“I think the trees with the wires, with the limbs and above ground wires, it kinda happens all the time around here, so I think we need underground wires,” she said.
Pepco confirmed that 40 customers were impacted and that repairs were expected by midnight.
News4 reached out to Pepco to ask if other outages caused by fallen trees in the area were reported this year. News4 also asked what the process is for requesting underground power lines to be installed. Pepco could not immediately provide this data, but the company said it focuses on routine vegetation trimming to reduce outages.
