3,000 DTE customers remain without power in Royal Oak after substation fire

ROYAL OAK, Mich. (WXYZ) - DTE Energy said a fire at a substation has left about 10,000 customers without electricity in the Royal Oak/Berkley area.

About 3,000 customers in Oakland County still remain without power as of 9 a.m. Thursday. The majority of the outages are in Royal Oak.

DTE said the power was shutoff to electric customers in the area of 13 Mile Rd. and Webster Ave. because of safety concerns.

The fire occurred about 10:20 p.m. Tuesday and was quickly contained. However, the interior of the substation suffered extreme smoke damage.

Once the fire was contained, DTE Energy technicians were able to enter the facility where it appears a circuit breaker overheated, causing the fire, a DTE spokesperson said.

Throughout the day on Wednesday, many residents and businesses were affected by the outage. 

Manus Power Motors along Woodward in Royal was able to stay in business, thanks to a generator.   

“We have a generator that’s powering lights and our phones also allowing us to do business,” said assistant manager Paul Wing.

The shop not only sells generators, but they repair lawn and garden equipment.  On Wednesday, fixing generators was the store’s priority.

 “We had a lot of phone calls during the last big outage,” said Wing.  “In the last couple weeks with the storms and such… a lot of inventory went out, a lot of repairs and when this happens we give priority to the generators.”

Larry Sinkovich was suddenly in the market for a generator after uncertainty of when his power will be restored continued to grow.  

“I’ve been thinking about getting one for six months now… and I don’t get one until it goes out,” jokes Sinkovich.

He planned to still buy a generator even if his power returned over the next couple of days.  He is just tired of waiting. 

“I’m sitting at home and the dogs are panting and I’m like I’m tired of that,” said Sinkovich.  “So I figured I should do it now.”

 A spokesperson for DTE Energy said the company is investigating the fire.