TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) – An underground electrical fire caused several road closures in downtown Tallahassee Tuesday morning, according to the Tallahassee Police Department (TPD).
The incident transpired around 5:15 a.m. after the Tallahassee Fire Department (TFD) responded to a fire alarm at the Leon County Courthouse, city officials wrote in a press release.
Crews arrived at the scene and found “several fires in the roadways and visible damage that caused traffic impacts near Monroe Street, Apalachee Parkway and Calhoun Street,” according to the release.
Officials said that there were early reports of a potential gas leak, but TFD quickly ruled that out. The incident was ultimately determined to be related to an underground electrical fire.
As of Tuesday morning, the exact cause of the fire remained under investigation, according to officials.
The bulk of the impacts occurred Tuesday morning on Monroe Street, between Apalachee Parkway and Jefferson Street “in the area of a paving project being facilitated by the Florida Department of Transportation,” according to the press release.
However, later that afternoon, city officials announced on social media that power was restored to the downtown area, traffic signals were reenergized and repairs to Monroe Street were completed and reopened to traffic.
However, despite the fire and debris, Monroe Street reopened later that day during the afternoon hours Tuesday.(WCTV)
Calhoun Street also reopened to traffic that afternoon.
A Capitol police officer said the manhole cover was blown about 30 feet into the air early Tuesday morning when the incident unfolded.
Around 7:30 a.m. Tuesday, TPD shared images on social media showing damage caused by the fire to roadways east of the Capitol complex.
An underground electrical fire leads to road closures(TPD)
In that same post, police also said road closures in that area were initially expected to remain throughout the day, including Monroe Street between Jefferson Street and Apalachee Parkway.
The Leon County Sheriff’s Office also listed road closure perimeters Tuesday morning, as deputies assisted the police department and TFD with the “fire-related incident.”
TPD said crews would conduct a planned electric service outage in the downtown area to safely make repairs.
As a result of the incident, LCSO said visitation at the Leon County Detention Facility was temporarily closed until further notice “due to infrastructure impacts.”
The Leon County Clerk of Courts also announced on social media that the courthouse and Leon County annex were closed.
The Leon County Property Appraiser said its office would also remain closed Tuesday due to the incident.
More Tallahassee News
Despite several road and facility closures, state operations remained largely unchanged.
Florida Senate staff were allowed to work from home until noon and the governor’s office said they all made it to work without issue.
TFD Deputy Chief Richard Jones said city officials would continue providing updates to keep residents informed.
“Once again, at the City of Tallahassee, we continue to push out information in real time, when we have it so that citizens will know what’s going on,” he said. “We’re all going to work together to get this situation taken care of as quick as possible.”
See a full list of closures and service updates here.
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