ADAMS COUNTY, Pa. (WHP) — Thousands of people are still experiencing power outages the morning after a fire broke out at a Met-Ed substation in Gardners.
The fire broke started around 8:50 p.m. Monday in the 600 block of Gardners Station Road, according to emergency dispatchers.
The blaze resulted in an increase in outages reported in the area—adding to over a thousands customers in Littletown who were already experiencing outages amid the heat wave.
READ MORE | Power outage during heat wave leaves thousands sweltering in Adams County
As of 5:30 a.m. Tuesday, more than 6,700 Met-Ed customers were without power in Adams County—making up just over 18% of FirstEnergy customers in the county.
Thousands of those outages are in the Gardners area, with estimated repair times currently listed as 11 p.m. Tuesday, according to FirstEnergy's outage map.
Emergency dispatchers told CBS 21 Tuesday morning that the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency was working with Cumberland County's Emergency Management Agency to help get those without power to cooling stations if needed.
The Adams County Electric Cooperative Inc., released a statement on the outages Monday night, saying, "Tonight around 9 p.m. we experienced a large First Energy transmission outage that affected 4 of our substations — Shippensburg, Southampton, Tyrone and York Springs. Met-Ed was able to reroute the transmission and we were able to put 3 stations back in power pretty quickly. Our York Springs station, which is normally fed from Met-Ed’s Gardners station, is currently being backfed by us from our Tyrone station."
Additionally, the Littlestown cooling station will reportedly be open for those without power affected by the fire, located at 43 South Columbus Ave. behind the police station.