D.C. Fire and EMS set up emergency stations outside three towering, dark apartment buildings in Northwest Wednesday night.
The buildings at 1200 and 1140 North Capitol Street and 901 New Jersey Avenue have been without power since Tuesday as the city's temperature climbed to near 100 degrees.
Residents received some good news at about 9 p.m. Wednesday, as Pepco crews restored power to the area, but their joy didn't last. About an hour later, the cables that serve that area failed again, causing a new outage.
According to D.C. Fire and EMS, several residents at the 1200 North Capitol location chose to sleep inside air conditioned Metro buses that had been converted into cooling centers. One person was transported to the hospital for a heat-related illness and one other person was evaluated.
Firefighters went door to door checking on residents and handing out bottled water throughout the night.
Several businesses, including hotels, were also in the dark after the outage. Power was lost after an underground feeder line went out on Tuesday during the height of this week's heat wave.
A Pepco spokesman said they are expecting power to be restored by noon today.
The following D.C. government office buildings are closed Thursday due to the power outage:
- 899 N. Capital -- OSSE, Health Care Finance, DOH
- 810 First Street, NE -- Dept. Insurance, Securities and Banking
- 1133 N. Capital -- DC Housing Authority
- 1300 First Street, NE
- 1200 First Street, NE - DDOE, DCPS
- 33 N Street, NE -- DHS
- J.O. Wilson Elementary School (Neither students nor staff should report.)
All employees are urged to contact their agencies for information about their operational status.
