Com Ed still has not restored power in Wicker Park

Update:
Power was restored for most customers in the early hours of Sun., July 8.

Commonwealth Edison had not restored service by Sat., July 7, 8 p.m., along the west side of Milwaukee Ave. and east side of Damen Ave. south of North Ave. to at least Honore. Service went out on Fri., July 6, between 5 and 5:30 p.m. Edison told the police at the scene on Friday that not too many people were effected and they would be back up in a short period of time.

The Edison website indicates 3 outages and 85 customers effected. Francesca's Forno at 1576 N. Milwaukee Ave. has partial electricity but they have no air conditioning, grill, tv and phones. Double Door moved their performances across Milwaukee Ave. Cipollina, 1543 N. Damen, has a generator outside their door, keeping their refrigeration going. Big Star is dark inside but customers are sitting outdoors. The Wicker Park Field House has electric but no phone service. Other businesses and residents in at least the triangular area are also without power. No one has been given any indication of when they will have service restored.

Residents of a Milwaukee Ave. building effected by the outage talked about their experience on Friday night.  "I heard a popping sound and thought someone was setting off fireworks outside my door. I went on my porch and saw that the transformer had blown up. I saw it heating before. I was worried about it but didn't say anything. I was going to call the police," said Jackie Stob.

"The first thing I noticed was that the lights flickered inside. I'd been hearing something but discounted it because it's close to July 4th and then I walked outside," said John Campbell.

Brandon Kruse explained that though the 20 to 30-minute fire was substantial at first, "It put itself out in about 10 minutes just as the fire trucks arrived."

"Ya, there was a time when it was really big and scary looking," confirmed Campbell. "It is terrible to live here during the heat."

"This is the third time they have replaced this transformer in a week. It blew before. They replaced it. Then they replaced it again even though there didn't appear to be anything wrong and we were without service for an afternoon and now this," said Kruse.

Stob said she'd call the police, if she saw a problem like this in the future.