School canceled after fire in Hopatcong

HOPATCONG – Schools in the borough were closed Wednesday after a fire left some district buildings without power, police said.

Power outages were being reported in the borough Tuesday night before a report came in to police at 11:14 p.m. about smoke in the boiler room at Hopatcong High School, according to a press release from Lt. Thomas Kmetz, a police department spokesman.

The custodian at the school said he heard a strange sound and saw smoke coming from an electrical panel in the boiler room, so he called for the Fire Department, Kmetz said.

Firefighters told the custodian to shut down the generator at the school, but before this could happen a transformer in front of the administration building began to arc several times, Kmetz said.

There was a large amount of smoke coming from the pipe connected to the telephone pole. A few minutes later the electrical meter on the administration building was billowing smoke. Then another electrical box behind a fence near the administration building began to billow smoke, Kmetz said.

A power line to Tulsa Trail School, which is about 100 yards from the administration building, melted off the back of the building.

The school's electrician and crews from Jersey Central Power & Light Co. arrived and cut all power.

Stan Prater, area manager for JCP&L, said a primary wire went down a little after 11 p.m. Tuesday and made contact with a a riser pole that has a pipe containing additional wires connected to it and that also faulted.

About 3,400 customers were initially affected by the outage but all customers were restored by 4 a.m. except for Tulsa Trail School and the district administration building.

The administration office and the entire district remained without power, phone and Internet services Wednesday morning, according to a notice on the district’s website, which was later updated to show that Internet service had been restored and school would be in session on Thursday.

Prater said that there was some internal damage to the meter at the administration building, which needed to be repaired by a district electrician, but power was restored by 10 a.m.

The district has three elementary schools, a middle school and a high school.