A Wednesday night fire in St. Michael has knocked out a major transformer, and utility crews are working at making an emergency replacement.
Because of that, residents and businesses have been put on notice by staff that periodic power outages, particularly west of County Road 19, could happen today.
According to a message from City Engineer Steve Bot, the fire happened late Wednesday night and badly damaged a transformer in town. Crews were able to knock down the fire (transformer fires can burn hot because they're often packed with an oil), but not before it caused the damage.
Xcel was working with the city to make a quick, emergency change on the transformer by 7 a.m. Thursday. Residents reported brief outages on and off this morning, but nothing major.
