Latest news with #electricalmalfunction
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Work in progress at burned business to get back on track
ST. LUCIE COUNTY − A large fire that ravaged a business on South U.S. 1 two months ago was determined to be accidental, caused by 'an unspecified electrical malfunction,' according to the St. Lucie County Fire District on Aug. 5. Firefighters worked June 3 to extinguish the blaze at South East Pools & Spas in the 7300 block of South U.S. 1 north of Prima Vista Boulevard, Fire District officials said. Crews at 5:37 a.m. went to the location on the east side of South U.S. 1 after reports of smoke and flames. Fire District Division Chief Donny Stefani at the time said the metal commercial structure was 50 percent involved in flames, which were coming from the roof of the yellow-and-blue building. The building sustained 'extensive damage' with roof collapses, he said. 'The fire cause has been determined to be accidental due to an unspecified electrical malfunction in the area of origin,' Capt. Fire Marshal Andres Elizondo stated in an e-mail forwarded Aug. 5 by an agency spokesperson. Business co-owner Phillip Giles on Aug. 6 said efforts are ongoing to get things back on track. 'It's just been a process, something that I've never dealt with before, but we're working through it, just getting through with insurance and also just kind of getting what we need permit wise,' Giles said. Giles has said the local building has been in operation about eight or nine years. Giles has said it's a family-owned business with other locations in the West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers and Tampa areas. Hot tub and swim spa sales constitute their main business, but they also service pool equipment. Giles said they have been working to open in a smaller building in front of the burned structure. 'We got our permit approved … and we are actually going to be getting product in this week and having our reopening event up there,' he said. He said they've gotten demolition permits, but are waiting for insurance related issues 'so that we can go ahead and get in there and start knocking down that structure.' Water rescue: Woman rescued from St. Lucie River in Port St. Lucie No shoes, no problem?: Is it legal to drive barefoot? They plan to build a new facility with modifications and upgrades and with a new look. Giles anticipated within 30 to 45 days the burned building should be knocked down, and they can start working on permitting issues for a new building. 'We've just got to be compliant. We don't want to have any issues with the county,' he said. 'We want to make sure they're happy and if they're happy, then we can … go out there and go sell and make our customers happy.' Will Greenlee is a breaking news reporter for TCPalm. Follow Will on X @OffTheBeatTweet or reach him by phone at 772-267-7926. E-mail him at This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Efforts underway to rebuild after huge fire at South East Pools & Spas Solve the daily Crossword
CTV News
05-08-2025
- Automotive
- CTV News
How Enova is keeping the lights on in Waterloo Region
Car crashes, severe storms and even technical failure can all contribute to power outages. In much of Waterloo Region, Enova Power Corp. is responsible for restoring that power when outages occur. An outage on July 8 made headlines after Thaler Avenue in Kitchener was shut down for several hours due to an electrical malfunction, which sparked a fire and forced a live wire to dance along the road. More than 1,600 homes were without power for several hours but Enova crews helped get the situation under control. 'It does take our crews time to assess and to safely be able to repair that,' said Matt Grime, control room supervisor at Enova. The control room is where that initial assessment begins. CTV News was given a behind-the-scenes look at Enova's control room on Tuesday, which helps keep the lights on in Kitchener, Waterloo, Woolwich, Wellesley and Wilmot. 'We have about 165,000 customers in a service area of about 1,100 square kilometres,' said Grime. 'We're mandated to work 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We have 14 operators in here that make that happen.' Each work station has several monitors which track something different. 'It's the nerve centre of our day-to-day operations,' said Krystopher Demers, Enova's manager of stations and grid intelligence. '[Staff] are responsible for working with our field crews to make sure we reliably and safely provide power to our customers.' The control room staff have to keep their head on a swivel as they triage incidents and outages. To even be a system control operator, it requires four years of schooling and at least 8,000 hours of exposure to the system. All of that experience also goes toward keeping customers informed. 'That's another priority – alerting customers through the outage map on our website of ongoing outages, keeping them up to date on the estimated time of restoration,' said Demers. Of course, it's not as easy as flipping a switch to restore power, especially with multiple outages at once. It could take minutes, hours or in extreme cases – days. 'So we basically work off the largest number of customers. We will try and find the cause of that first, and then we go down the list,' said Grime. The severity of the situation and different safety concerns also factor in. In terms of what to do if you experience an outage, Enova says customers can call in it's not already noted on their online outage map. If the outage is being worked on, they ask for the public's patience and assure everyone they are aware of their role. 'We are the supplier in the area responsible for keeping the lights on,' said Demers.
