Community Corner

Overnight Fire Dept. Runs Deal with Power Outage, No Significant Health Concerns

Ferndale Fire Chief said there were several runs overnight and the majority of them were power outage related.

The DTE Energy workers weren't the only ones working through the night. The Ferndale Fire Department was right there with them. Ferndale Fire Chief Kevin Sullivan said the department went out on several runs overnight.

"We had several transformer fires, a couple transports to the Kulick Center and a couple welfare checks," Sullivan said. "Nothing too severe, no one was transported to the hospital, nothing too big. But it was all pretty much outage related."

The Gerry Kulick Community Center was operating as an all-night cooling center for those in Ferndale without power. However, around 10:30 p.m., the Kulick Center also lost power.

Find out what's happening in Ferndalewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Sullivan's crew quickly acted, bringing generators over to power fans and keep the air circulating for the 40 people who stayed overnight at the Kulick Center.

The temperatures over the past week have been in the 90s and, on Thursday, hit 100 degrees in some areas.

Find out what's happening in Ferndalewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Ferndale Recreation Center Julie Hall said that though the building did get a little "stuffy," it stayed fairly comfortable. She said there were no medical issues through the night. Thursday during the day, one man was rushed to Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak, because he had forgotten to take his diabetes medication. Another woman had asthma issues but refused to go to the hospital and was treated on site.

Sullivan said if the power in the Kulick Center goes out again, the backup location would be the Detroit Curling Club. It appears that 80 percent of the city is back online, he said.

On Wednesday at about 5:30 p.m., Ferndale's power started going out. By Wednesday evening nearly 5,000 customers were without power. On Thursday, throughout the day, that number hovered between 3,000 and 4,000 customers without power. Thursday evening, however, after a second transformer blew at the West Nine Mile and Dover substation, nearly 6,000 were reported to be without power, including the entire central business district of Ferndale.

Currently, according to the DTE outage map, there are 4,108 customers without power.

Ferndale Mayor Dave Coulter said that DTE has brought in a portable generator with the hopes of getting the West Nine substation up and running, restoring power to the majority of Ferndale.


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