By SHELLEY TERRY - Staff Writer - sterry@starbeacon.com
ASHTABULA — A fire in the back alley of a furniture store is blamed for a citywide power outage Monday.
About 2,500 residences were left in the dark for more than four hours after vandals set a mattress box on fire at about 5:30 p.m. behind Michael's Furniture, 4520 Main Ave..
Ashtabula firefighters quickly extinguished the blaze and set up fans to
ventilate the Head Start building.
No one was injured, but the blaze damaged the rear exterior of the Head Star
office, 4510 Main Ave.., and a nearby utility pole. The utility pole turned out
to be very important to the city's power supply, said Mark Jones, area manager
for the Illuminating Co.
"The situation cascaded and tripped our substation (at West 51st Street and
Jefferson Avenue)," Jones said. "The mattress was wrapped around the (utility)
pole."
The outage affected homes, businesses and traffic signals until 9:50 p.m. from
Woodman Avenue east to the Ashtabula Township line.
For some businesses farther east, such as the Edgewood Dairy Queen, the blackout
caused headaches and disappointed customers. Folks expecting a cool ice-cream
cone on a warm Memorial Day evening could order only Dilly bars or slush drinks
because the outage caused the ice-cream machines to go down, employees said.
Ashtabula police are looking for the arsonists who set the mattress on fire.
They are described as two juveniles riding on bicycles. Anyone with information
about the fire should call the Ashtabula Police Department at (440) 992-7172.
