An underground electrical fire required Needham public safety officials to close off the town center for more than two hours Saturday morning as Eversource crews worked to determine the cause of the problem.
The fire department received a report at 10:07 a.m. of smoke rising from manholes on Great Plain Avenue in the area around the Town Common.
Fire and police responded to the scene and police blocked off all roads leading into the downtown at six locations. They were re-opened just after 12:30 p.m. as Eversource continued to investigate what appeared to be the failure of underground cables which caused the smoke and prompted the response.
An Eversource spokesman said the utility had “multiple crews on site responding to an underground issue.”
Several businesses in the immediate area were evacuated but others with rear entrances remained open. Some expressed concern that customers could not access the streets on one of their busiest days of the week.
Eversource spokesperson William Hinkle said the problem caused no customer outages, but some service may be affected during the repair process.
“Our crews are working with local officials to make the area safe and determine the cause of the issue before making repairs.”
“We will have to de-energize the line in order to safely make repairs. This could temporarily impact some customers in the area, but we’re bringing in two generators to serve those customers while repairs are made.”
Jeanne Hopkins contributed to this story.
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