Twice in one night, Altamont lost power

Friday, December 16, 2016 - 18:35

ALTAMONT — Just after midnight today, the village went dark — no streetlamps, no glow from inside homes, no bright Christmas lights.

“A tree went down on a line,” said Patrick Stella, a spokesman for National Grid. It affected 2,500 customers, he said, and power was restored by 1:30 a.m.

Then, five hours later, the power went out again — at 6:30 a.m.

Altamont Fire Chief Paul Miller, who knew nothing about the cause of the first outage, said firefighters were called to the scene at around 6:30. “A power line came down on Gardner Road,” he said.

The firefighters waited for a National Grid crew to arrive, Miller said.

Stella said the second outage affected the same 2,500 customers as the first and was due to an “equipment malfunction.”

He concluded, referring to the downed tree that first knocked out power, “It was part of the same issue.” Power was restored by 8:30 a.m., he said.

Corrected on Dec. 16, 2016 to include the proper title for Altamont Fire Chief Paul Miller.

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