American flag catches fire on power lines at WWE headquarters in Stamford
Eversource officials say around 5,000 customers lost power after the flag caught on fire.
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A single flag whipped by powerful winds triggered a massive electrical headache across Fairfield County, knocking out power to more than 25,000 customers in Stamford and Greenwich.
The trouble began on Saturday night at approximately 9:05 p.m. when severe overnight storm conditions blew a flag directly into a major transmission structure in Stamford. The initial impact immediately cut power to roughly 5,000 Stamford residents.
Fire officials say they were called to 707 Washington Blvd., the site of the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) headquarters, where an American flag flew off the building and was found on top of nearby power lines.
Utility crews responded quickly to the scene, using remote switching technology to restore power to 3,000 of the impacted Stamford customers in fewer than 20 minutes. However, as line workers pulled an all-night shift to fix the remaining damage, the situation took a complicated turn.
The transmission structure holds two separate, high-voltage circuits. While crews were actively working to safely remove the tangled flag, the fabric shifted in the wind and made contact with a second, fully energized line that was keeping power flowing to neighboring towns.
This unexpected contact caused a massive secondary blackout, instantly plunging more than 20,000 customers in Greenwich into darkness.
Crews successfully isolated and repaired the compromised lines, completely restoring power to the remaining Stamford customers by 5:00 a.m. Workers also successfully re-secured the Greenwich line, allowing power to steadily flow back into the affected neighborhoods.
The flag incident compounded an already busy night for utility workers. Fierce winds and heavy overnight downpours brought down trees and limbs across the region, knocking out power to an additional 2,800 customers on separate local circuits.
Crews are continuing to work as quickly and safely as possible to clear tree debris and rebuild broken infrastructure. Officials are reminding the public to treat all downed wires as live and dangerous, urging anyone who encounters a fallen line to stay far away and report it to 911 immediately.
