Workers escape injury in
Howell transformer blaze
Electricians on scene
estimate repairs
will take months
By charles w. kim
Staff Writer

JERRY WOLKOWITZ Smoke billows from the charred remains of a 230,000-volt power transformer which exploded in Howell on Monday morning.

Two high-power electrical transformers exploded into flames on Monday morning at the Jersey Central Power and Light (JCP&L) Larabee transmission substation on Ran-dolph Road, Howell.

"We were lucky to get out," said one of three JCP&L workers in the area of the explosion.

The worker, who has been with the company for more than 35 years, said he and two others were working on a capacitor bank about 30 feet away from the first transformer when he saw an arc of electricity in one of the breakers of the device.

"The transformer split. I told the men to get out of there," he said.

JERRY WOLKOWITZ A fireball rises from an electrical transformer at the Larabee transmission substation, Randolph Road, Howell on Monday.

The transformer then exploded at about 10:15 a.m., according to the worker.

"We heard the explosion and looked up. We saw flames shooting into the air," the worker said, adding, "You could feel the heat."

Three explosions within 45 minutes rocked the facility which takes power from 230,000-volt high-tension lines and reduces it to 34,500 volts to be sent out to smaller substations.

The power comes from a generation site like the Oyster Creek facility in Forked River, Ocean County, and is dropped to several smaller voltage substations for distribution throughout the service area, according to JCP&L spokesman Pete Johner.

Johner said the Howell substation does that by using four or five 230,000-volt step-down transformers.

Bob Langworthy, who has been with the company for 22 years, was working on the other side of the facility when the first explosion took place.

"You could feel the ground shaking under your feet," Langworthy said, adding, "It was pretty intense."

Langworthy said the second explosion followed in about 10 minutes, and the third about 30 minutes after that.

David Rod, production manager for Twin Vision Inc. and Presentation Inc., which are also on Randolph Road, said he came outside to witness the third explosion.

"There was a mushroom cloud, and the flames were more than 25 feet in the air," Rod said.

Rod said the business has been at the location near the intersection with Route 547 for seven years and that he has seen several car accidents there. He said this was something much different.

"I have never seen anything on this scale," Rod said.

Police and emergency vehicles were on the scene in minutes, according to workers there.

Although the blaze was somewhat contained, the transformers were still burning at 1 p.m.

"It is the oil that is burning," Langworthy said, explaining that about 5,000 gallons of oil are used as a coolant in each of the transformers as anti-freeze is used to cool a car engine.

Following the first explosion, Langworthy saw some of the oil from the first transformer flood the ground and head for a truck.

Langworthy said he was able to get the truck out of the area.

According to Langworthy, it may take months to fix the damage caused by the explosions and fire.

"They have to be retooled. You are talking months," he said.

Langworthy said that damage from a storm, similar to the one last month that left thousands of people without power, is actually easier to repair than something like this.

"That is just fried. You take the old wires out and hook up a new one," he said.

Monday happened to be the day that Langworthy returned to work after a 10-day vacation.

"It looks like I’ll be working for a while," he said.

Johner said the investigation into the explosion is continuing and would not speculate on why the first transformer exploded.

Some of the workers said the extreme heat this summer caused the equipment to suffer a much higher than normal workload and could have been a cause of the explosion.

"They are running hot to begin with," another worker at the site said.

Johner said that power had been restored to everyone initially affected by the incident, but could not say just how many people were impacted or how many people are served by that location.

He did say, however, that the power does travel from that station to Point Pleasant, Beachwood, Toms River and Wall.

Langworthy said he had never seen such an event and that the workers close to the first transformer were fortunate to escape with their lives.

"A lot of times, you don’t get any warning," he said.