A fire in PSO’s eastside power station is the apparent cause of a massive power outage that left east Lawton and towns in eastern Comanche County without power early Wednesday.
Tim Hushbeck, spokesman for PSO, said early Wednesday that while the cause was still under investigation, the fire appears to have started from a lightning strike from a storm that hit the area sometime around 4 a.m.
While there were scattered small outages in west Lawton, the brunt of the problem could be seen in east Lawton and as far west as downtown and as far south as Lawton-Fort Sill Regional Airport and the surrounding area. In the heaviest affected area, almost 8,500 customers lost power about 5 a.m. Elgin, Fletcher, Apache, Cement and the Lake Ellsworth area also lost power about 6:17 a.m., adding another 8,400 customers.
“At this point, I don’t have an ETR (estimated time of restoration),” Hushbeck said about 7:30 a.m., saying the priority is securing the power station, then switching customers to other power sources. “We have to get it safe first.”
Lawton Public Schools switched its students to a virtual day today, citing power outages across the city. Flower Mound, Bishop, Elgin and Fletcher announced they would cancel school.
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