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  • KARK 4 News

    Underground electrical fire in downtown Little Rock impacts businesses

    By Neale Zeringue,

    22 hours ago

    https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=3pCwzj_0uzXotxM00

    LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Entergy crews were underground Thursday in Downtown Little Rock repairing damage from an electrical fire Wednesday evening.

    It cut power to about 100 customers around the intersection of 6th and Main Streets. Firefighters and Entergy Arkansas restored electricity within a few hours, but not before affecting a theatre performance across the street.

    Portion of downtown Little Rock dealing with Wednesday night outage

    Will Trice, executive director of the Arkansas Repertory Theatre, said 300 audience members were preparing to watch a production of Jitney when his team noticed smoke rising from a sidewalk grate and called 911.

    “We actually had started seating people for the show and then noticed some lights flickering, and maybe 10 minutes before the show was supposed to start the power went out,” Trice said.

    The audience was evacuated to the lobby. After half an hour, the show and a rehearsal for next week’s debut of Hello Dolly were canceled.

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    According to Entergy Arkansas communications manager Kacee Kirschvink, an underground electrical vault storing transformers caught fire. Power was immediately cut to prevent further spread.

    “The system is designed to protect itself,” Kirschvink said. “Our system works 24/7, and unfortunately things are going to fail, and when they do, we do what we can to isolate the problem, and then get the power restored to customers and then fix the damage.”

    Kirschvink said power was fully restored Wednesday by rerouting around the problem. On Thursday, crews entered through manholes to restore damaged wiring. Entergy is still investigating the cause of the fire.

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    Businesses are also hoping to restore everything for their customers. The Arkansas Repertory Theatre issued refunds but is calling everyone affected by the cancellation to see if they can reschedule this weekend.

    “I think that is one of the great things about theatre folks is that we’re always ready for something to go wrong and roll with the punches,” Trice said.

    Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

    For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KARK.

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