DOWNTOWN Jersey City waterfront tower expects to get power back today; transformer fire blamed for outage

Tuesday, March 02, 2010
By TOM SHORTELL
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

A transformer fire at a Jersey City high-rise caused a Downtown building to lose electricity yesterday and power is not expected to be restored until sometime today, officials said.

The building that lost power, 1 River Court, is one of four buildings that comprise the Towers of America complex on the Jersey City waterfront.

The Jersey City Fire Department received a call about an underground transformer catching fire at 20 River Court at 7:53 a.m., Fire Director Armando Roman said.

Firefighters responded within minutes to battle the two-alarm blaze and didn't leave the scene until 10:38 a.m., Roman said.

That fire caused a second transformer at 1 River Court to catch fire and blow out, he said.

A PSE&G spokeswoman said power to the westernmost tower of the Towers of America complex was expected to be brought back on line sometime today.

The fire at 1 River Court created smoke in the luxury apartment building but did not cause any damage to the building or injuries, Roman said.

The buildings in the complex range in height from 33 to 36 stories.