LEWISTON – Runoff from water used to put out a fire at the former Hotel Holly caused a Main Street transformer to blow early Friday morning, fire officials said.
Crews cleaning up debris from a Jan. 12 explosion and fire snagged a wire that was attached to the transformer. That allowed water to get into one of the bushings, said Lewiston Fire Inspector Paul Ouellette.
“When we opened the vault to that transformer, we found water that had run off from the fire,” Ouellette said. “Apparently, pulling on the wire was enough to loosen that bushing and let the water in.”
The transformer shorted out with a loud explosion and a blue spark at about 12:20 a.m. Friday.
One witness said the explosion blew off a street grate.
“The good news is, this was not gas related,” Ouellette said. “People are very concerned about that all over town.”
The short-out caused a blip in Lewiston’s electric grid.
“We had no real interruption of power,” said Central Maine Power Co. spokeswoman Gail Rice. “There might have been a little bump, but that was it.”
Fire investigators believe the Jan. 12 explosion was caused by natural gas that leaked from a pipe under Main Street and seeped into the basement of the former Hotel Holly.
The explosion destroyed the hotel and the neighboring Lewiston Radiator Works.
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