Fire in Cambridge...large power outtage

[koshmom.livejournal.com]

I just got a call from my husband at Pandemonium Books and Games, in Central Square.  There's a power outtage there as far as he can see.  I'm listening to the police scanner (http://scanner.wickedlocal.com/northwest/arlington.php) to Medford, Arlington, Cambridge and Somerville.  Cambridge is quite busy.  Apparently there's a fire alarm somewhere near Cambridgeside Galleria, they mentioned 10 Rogers Street (it's nearish First and Binney).  They keep talking about MIT Building 13 (105 mass ave) too. The outtage map for NStar http://outagemap.nstar.com/outage/OutageMap.aspx shows outtages in Cambridge all the way to the Arlington border, and some if not all of Somerville too.  I have no idea if the outage map just colors the entire city if one outtage is reported, however.  Looking out my window, where I can see most of medford and into Somerville and beyond (it's great living on a hillside) I can see a lot of street lights but house lights seem few and far between, so the outtage may reach into Medford too. 

Comments

[cos]

From my perch up above One Kendall Square at the ITA offices, I can see that power at One Kendall is still on, as well as in our building, and things look lit up normally in the area from here to Central Square.

I hear reports of things out on the Cambridgeport side of Central, and I can see from my window that starting a block or two towards MIT from One Kendall the power is out.

[gentlescholar.livejournal.com]

Central Somerville has power. Haven't noticed any outages.

[siderea]

North Cambridge here, more or less at XKCD park: the power is on.

[angerona.livejournal.com]

what's an XKCD park?

[siderea]

The better known name of what is officially "Reverend Williams Park".

[angerona.livejournal.com]

cool, thanks

[cos]

The park at the coordinates in the "dream girl" series of xkcd's, which led to the giant xkcd meetup happening there, several years ago.

[angerona.livejournal.com]

got it, thanks

[mindstalk.livejournal.com]

http://blog.xkcd.com/2007/10/01/the-meetup/

[kdsorceress.livejournal.com]

I am so happy that other people refer to it thusly.

~Sor

[ron_newman]

I just got back from a short bike trip, Union Square to Market Basket to Davis Square, and saw no outages along that line. I had no idea that anything had happened until I logged into LJ and Facebook.

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

The NStar map is not too useful.

There's no neighborhood granularity. All of Somerville is yellow because 4 customers lost power out of 36,959.

[mindstalk.livejournal.com]

Mouseover says 26% of customers without power.

[koshmom.livejournal.com]

Hubby called. NStar says something like 17% of their customers are experiencing and outtage in Cambridge - that's like 14,000 customers, including the T. Lots of stalled elevators. I'm having a ball with this police scanner! There's no obvious outtage in Arlington, I just heard them alert their police staff to the Cambridge "widespread power outtage".

[ron_newman]

Cambridge part of Day Street has house lights and street lights on as usual. (I live right at the city line)

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

Anyone know if the Red Line is running?

The T website just says there are significant delays, with no further details.

whereisthet.com shows reasonbly normal predictions, and doesn't indicate any disruption. (A 12-minute gap between trains at rush hour is bad, but isn't very unusual for the T.)

[cos]

Red line is running, but slow and very delayed. I've heard this from my housemate at Porter Square, and a coworker on a train near Kendall Square.

[cos]

> Apparently there's a fire alarm somewhere near Cambridgeside Galleria, they mentioned 10 Rogers Street (it's nearish First and Binney).

I don't see any reports of this elsewhere, and boston.com has stuff about a fire today in Brookline but none about one in Cambridge. Is this something you heard on that scanner? Did they actually say there was a fire, or that there was an alarm for the fire department that might be for some other reason?

[koshmom.livejournal.com]

I'm listening to the cambridge, Somerville and Medford police and fire scanners. (Medford is quite silent) They said there were fire alarms. Now they're talking about another alarm at 304 Vasser street, and Somerville Fire is responding to that one. Earlier I heard a fire alarm on Brookline Street, one block from Mass Ave in Central Square. There's some fights and thefts in/near Central square, even though Businesses are closed. Cambridgeside Galleria mall is closed, and the resultant pedestrian traffic is becoming troublesome. Way earlier there were lots of stalled elevators (duh, with the power outtage) and I know some were stalled and cleared at the Central Square T station.

[lbmango.livejournal.com]

Can anyone confirm or deny this story with the deer? https://twitter.com/MBTADeer

[hahathor.livejournal.com]

Searches on news.google and news.yahoo for mbta deer turn up nothing but that twitter feed, and the only news on mbta.com is that there are delays on the Red Line. I suspect it's a prank. I mean, seriously, a lot of MIT students are unable to work right now; it would be really messed up if there were no pranks.

You should take advantage of the opportunity to look at the moon which is AMAZING right now.

[ceo]

We lost power a 8 Cambridge Center in Kendall; due to the Red Line hosage I walked to Lechmere for the bus I'm now on ( after a beer with coworkers). Much of East Cambridge was dark and there were fire engines outside the Galleria.

[koshmom.livejournal.com]

Just got a call from hubby. The power is back on at Pandemonium in Central Square around 6:15pm, so NStar apparently is on the ball, and at least some power has been restored.

[tikva.livejournal.com]

Talked to bester, who works at MIT. Asked him how he was doing, and got, "It's very dark". Apparently traffic is a mess, which makes sense with no traffic signals and no lights. I expect a lot of people will be getting home late tonight.

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

Traffic was totally hosed in East Cambridge, and it turns out there was also a nasty accident at the intersection of Mass. Ave. and Memorial Drive. As in "how did that car end up atop that other car?" kind of nasty. *shudder*

[zdenka]

After my house lost power, I took a walk around; there was power out in Cambridgeport, both towards Harvard and extending towards Kendall, and another section of no power around Central Square. Street lights and traffic lights were out, and there were police at major intersections directing traffic with flashlights.

I don't know if this is the fire people heard about, but there was *also* a car that caught fire in Central Square. A policeman told me it was unrelated to the power outage.

Power has just come back on, though (just before 7p.m.).

This has been your local report.

[greyling.livejournal.com]

What happened at building 13?