5,000 Without Power in Exeter, Nearby Communities

EXETER, NH — Unitil is reporting a major power outage in its Seacoast communities, mainly center around Exeter. More than 60 percent of the town’s customers – 4,970 – are without power at around 4 p.m. on Jan. 4, 2017. About 60 customers are without power in Kensington with two in Hampton Falls without power and one customer in Stratham.

Estimated times of restoration are sometime between 5 and 7 p.m., according to the company.

At just after 5 p.m., power appeared to have been restored to about 1,800 customers.

Exeter Police reported on Twitter that the outage is due to a transformer malfunction.

Transformer malfunction 3/4 of the Town of Exeter without power expected outage for 2 to 3 hours. Please call Unitil for updates.
— Exeter Police Dept (@ExeterNHPD) January" class="redactor-linkify-object">https://twitter.com/ExeterNHPD... 4, 2017

Exeter's Firefighter union Twitter account noted that a fire at a substation caused the problem. They are at the scene with Unitil workers. The New Hampshire Union Leader is reporting on Twitter that the malfunction was caused by a squirrel.

Currently have a fire in a transformer. pic.twitter.com/gnuqT9X50n
— ExeterPFF3491 (@EPff3491) January" class="redactor-linkify-object">https://twitter.com/EPff3491/s... 4, 2017

Exeter NH Patch will update this post when more information becomes available.