CHARLOTTE, N.C. — More than 11,000 customers lost power after a fire at the Duke Energy substation in Matthews off Old Monroe Road across the Mecklenburg County line, the Matthews Police Department confirmed.
East John Street was closed from I-485 to Stallings Road Friday morning due to the outage. Drivers were asked to seek alternate routes or take extra precautions if driving in the area.
Duke Energy officials said the fire broke out on a portable piece of equipment that was being used in connection to some maintenance work at the substation.
Duke Energy officials said the main substation wasn't impacted by the fire, but its operators had to figure out a way to switch power from the portable system to its main equipment in order to restore power to the area.
The crews were able to bring the outage down to a few thousand by 11 a.m. Power was completely restored just before 1 p.m.
PHOTOS: Fire at Duke Energy powerstation
To see the latest on the Duke Energy outage, visit the company's outage map.
The fire was put out before 11 a.m. by crews. It's unknown at this time what caused the fire to break out at the facility.
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