A downed power line sparked a car fire in a residential Fort Lauderdale neighborhood Sunday afternoon, prompting utility crews to shut off power to thousands of customers in the area.
According to Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue, the incident occurred just before 4:15 p.m. near the 1500 block of Cordova Road, in the area of Southeast 15th Street and 10th Avenue. The energized line ignited a parked vehicle, said department spokesman Frank Guzman.
Because the line was still live when first responders arrived, firefighters had to wait for Florida Power & Light (FPL) to de-energize the grid before safely extinguishing the blaze. The precaution affected power to more than 2,000 customers, officials said.
FPL crews responded swiftly and are working to restore power, though the total number of residents still impacted by the outage was unclear as of publishing time.
Officials have not yet determined what caused the power line to fall. Fire officials are urging the public to treat all downed lines as potentially deadly, even if they are not sparking or making noise.
Many Caribbean Americans, who make up a significant portion of Fort Lauderdale’s population, may have been affected by the outage, as the city is considered one of the community’s largest hubs in Florida.
