An electrical fire in an underground vault on East Market Street led to a power outage Monday morning in downtown Akron.
The fire and outage caused smoke damage to the building at 39 E. Market St., which is located between Main and High streets, and rerouted traffic for hours.
No injuries were reported, but the outage forced the closure of attached buildings that house Huntington Bank and 3 Point Restaurant and the evacuation of several apartments.
The neighboring Crave and Urban Eats were closed, as well, and Akron Municipal Court closed for the day as a security precaution, with cases to be rescheduled.
The fire was reported about 7:45 a.m.
FirstEnergy spokesman Mark Durbin said the utility company was asked to disconnect power to the building and that resulted in nearly 230 downtown customers losing power as well.
The utility had to shut off power at a substation because the smoke was too heavy inside a manhole at the building, and utility workers couldn’t get inside.
Power was restored to the majority of customers just before 10:30 a.m., but some immediately around the building were still affected.
The Huntington Bank building didn’t suffer any damage and was reopened later when power was restored, a bank spokesman said.
Tony Troppe, who owns the buildings, noted that Ohio Edison was called in last week because of a report of smoke. The utility company responded but didn’t find anything at the time, he said.
Durbin confirmed that Ohio Edison inspected its equipment both visually and by using a special thermal camera and didn’t see any problems.
Residents affected
Jason Scala and Elizabeth Tyran, who live in one of the apartments above 3 Point and operate Urban Eats next door, were forced from their home and figure that they will lose their possessions because of smoke damage.
They were disappointed in how firefighters handled the situation, calling their actions “rude” and “unprofessional.”
They said it pained them to say that because they are supportive of firefighters and police, and Tyran’s brother is a Columbus firefighter.
Scala said he awoke to smoke and went outside to ask firefighters if they should evacuate, but was told it was safe to be there.
He then went to work and Tyran stayed in the apartment.
She called him about 10 minutes later to say the apartment was quickly filling with smoke and asked him to come help her outside.
But when he went back, a firefighter warned against re-entering the building because of the harmful fumes.
“I said, ‘Well you told us to stay in our apartment and now my girlfriend is trapped up there,’ ” Scala said. “They wouldn’t even go in with me and they had the oxygen tanks and stuff. I had to go back in there by myself with just my shirt pulled up to help her down the stairs.”
Tyran, who was still coughing a few hours later because of the smoke, said the firefighters also brushed her off when she let them know that there were other apartments above Crave and perhaps those residents should be evacuated.
“They said, ‘No, that’s not our problem,’ ” she said.
“Are you telling me that the safety of those people is not your problem?” Tyran responded. “And the one firefighter literally said, ‘That’s right. That’s what I said.’ I couldn’t even believe what I’m hearing.”
Tyran and Scala complained directly to Fire Chief Clarence Tucker, who was at the scene.
Tucker couldn’t be reached for comment.
Rick Armon can be reached at 330-996-3569 or rarmon@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter at @armonrickABJ .