Power Line Burns Cars

A high tension power line was damaged by a falling tree branch on Rural Drive on Monday afternoon and caused a Mercedes Benz to burn up and damaged a Porsche that was in the driveway. According to Captain Allan Gleason, who was the tour commander for the fire, the department received an initial report of a downed power line and brush fire. However, when they arrived on the scene, the high voltage power line was arcing, and threatening both the cars and nearby homes.

Firemen could not combat the fire until Con Edison arrived to disconnect the line. When they did, it was too late to save the Mercedes convertible, which was burned and totaled. The Porsche did sustain damage but was drivable after the incident.

When Con Edison disconnected the line, they also caused outages at nearby homes and the Scarsdale Pool Complex which is on the same power grid. The fire department sent out three fire trucks, a ladder truck and two officers to fight the fire, and they were successful at containing it to the driveway of the home.