Thousands of people are without power in Madison, following a power station fire. Initial reports had over 13,000 Madison Gas and Electric customers are without service due to a transformer explosion and fire at MG&E’s downtown Madison facility. A second fire occurred at a substation just south of downtown. Both fires were out by 9:00 and no one was injured.
Fires At MGE Substations Are Out; Not Believed To Be Intentional Location: 700 block E. Main Street Incident Type: Structure Dispatch: 07/19/2019 7:50am The fires that occurred this morning at two MGE substations remain under invest… https://t.co/Wj9G4tVZeA
— Madison Fire Dept. (@MadisonWIFire) July 19, 2019
Governor Tony Evers has closed state buildings due to the outage.
We are asking non-essential state employees headquartered downtown to go home for the day and asking folks to please avoid the downtown area.
— Governor Tony Evers (@GovEvers) July 19, 2019
With high temperatures in the mid 90s today, the Kohl Center on the UW campus has been opened as a cooling center.
BREAKING: For those in need of a place to stay cool downtown, the Kohl Center is now open as a public cooling center.
— Joe Parisi (@DaneCoJoe) July 19, 2019
MG&E crews are working to restore power. A press conference is scheduled for 11:00.