WALTHAM, MASS. (WHDH) - First responders and power crews worked throughout Waltham Monday after the city experienced a power surge, leading to widespread outages.
Fires were also reported inside several houses as Waltham Fire Chief Andrew Mullin told 7NEWS his department received around 40 phone calls from residents within 30 minutes around 9 a.m.
Mullin said the calls ranged from homeowners reporting power outlets smoking to the full-blown house fire on School Avenue.
A 15-year-old boy was believed to be the only person inside of the home at the time of the fire on School Avenue and was able to get out safely, according to officials.
“The flames were shooting out the front,” said Tricia Hurley, who called 911.
Raimondo Alonge owns the home that burned. He said he was shocked to later get a call telling him his house was on fire.
“Thank god nobody got hurt, that’s the most important thing,” he said.
Elsewhere, Lisa Gladman showed 7NEWS a black scorch mark under one of her power outlets.
“It was quite prominent,” she said of the power surge’s impacts and her outlet. “You could see the white spark come out of it.”
Fire departments from neighboring communities were called in to assist with the response, which Chief Mullin said echoed a surge Waltham experienced back in 2022.
“From my perspective, it’s very similar — whether it’s the same or not for Eversource, I don’t know, but we responded to numerous incidents in a very, very short amount of time,” Mullin told reporters.
Waltham Mayor Jeannette McCarthy visited the scene on School Avenue after the fire on Monday. She said she wants answers.
“We got to get to the bottom of it,” she said. “That’s it.”
The surge on Monday impacted roughly 6,000 households.
In a statement later Monday afternoon, Eversource said crews “working with the City of Waltham’s wire inspector team, fire department and private electricians who we hired, went door-to-door and visited the homes of customers who reported any issues or concerns following this morning’s power outage and voltage surge.”
“As part of that process, we inspected the electric equipment both inside and outside of those homes to ensure that our customers are safe,” the Eversource statement said. “We are also still working to determine the cause for this morning’s outage and power surge.”
7NEWS separately spoke with Eversource spokesperson Chris McKinnon on Monday.
“We made the area safe,” he said. “We’re just really working on getting to the bottom of what caused this.”
Eversource said it is investigating both the cause of this most recent surge and any connection to the surge in October of last year.
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