MEMPHIS, Tenn. — It was lights out for thousands of Memphis Light, Gas and Water customers.
“It was kind of scary for a while. There was a huge fireworks show and a huge fireball in our back yard basically.”
People who live in Arlington all reported the same thing.
They heard the humming of electrical wires and then a huge explosion.
Parker Dye was driving home from dropping off a friend when he saw it happen.
“It was flickering blue and then it just turned red, and of course that freaked me out for a second. I had no idea what was going on at the time.”
Firefighters were called to the MLGW facility on Highway 70.
It took them about two hours to get the fire put out.
MLGW reported 19,000 accounts were without power. Each account can mean one or more people are affected.
“We woke up and we knew we had the transformers behind us. It was putting out a lot of light, a lot of heat, so we went out to see what was going on,” said Tim Joyce.
Joyce said he woke up to a humming sound and then an explosion.
He’s just thankful the fireball didn’t burn his house down- something he and his wife were worried about.
“It came across our fence, and we could feel the heat and we were worried it was going to burn our house down right at that moment.”
Thankfully the fire didn’t spread, and for most in Northeast Shelby County, the biggest issue was several hours without power.