Firefighters respond to West End blaze during latest winter storm

Live wire damages Long Beach home, causes some power outages

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Long Beach firefighters responded to a small fire in the West End shortly after noon on Friday after an electrical wire broke loose from a telephone pole and fell dangerously close to a woman’s home.

The house, near the intersection of Florida Street and Oceanview Avenue, sustained minor damage, Long Beach Fire Chief RJ Tuccillo said. The incident forced power to be turned off in the area temporarily, he added, as firefighters worked on the scene during the latest winter storm.

PSEG crews were also at the scene and power was expected to be restored after approximately 30 minutes, said Tuccillo, as the fire only involved one wire and a small transformer.

A portion of the concrete surface outside the woman’s home was "liquefied" by the wire due to its high voltage, he added, but nobody was injured.

“We’re very lucky because with live electric, we’re not shooting water on that,” Tuccillo said. “We had to basically stand there and wait until electric got there and shut [it] off. Thankfully, it burned itself out and then when they got there, they killed all the power, so everything was absolutely fine.”

It was the only major emergency reported during the storm, according Tuccillo, who added that other calls the Fire Department responded to on Friday afternoon, including automatic alarms, were relatively minor.