Accident causes power outages; damage to utilities in Spencerport

Accident causes power outages;
damage to utilities in Spencerport

After the movie filming was over for the day, the production went on with a new crew.

In Spencerport village Saturday, December 16, many passersby stopped to watch the filming of scenes for a movie, “Alphabet Killer,” an independent feature loosely based on the 1970s unsolved murders of three Rochester area girls whose first and last names began with the same initials.

Spencerport Mayor Ted Walker said he first heard of plans to use a section of the central business district as sets and backdrops about a week prior to the shoot. One village business on Union Street was transformed into a grocery store where scenes were shot throughout the day. When the day’s filming downtown was over, the cameras and actors were on the move to a home on West Avenue when a production company truck traveling across the parking lot located behind businesses on the west side of Union Street caught a utility wire. The snag occurred at 4:59:30 p.m., and, according to Spencerport Village Electric Superintendent Jack Linder, subsequently caused the snap of two utility poles at the base and the dislodging of one of five transformers attached to the poles.

Oil spilling from the transformer was set afire by sparks from the electrical wires, igniting a car fire in a vehicle owned by a member of the production company which was parked in the lot.

Once the power was cut to the main feed servicing the parking lot area, responders from Spencerport Fire Department contained the car fire, but the vehicle as well as camera equipment and material belonging to the company were destroyed in the blaze. Siding on the east side of the Village Square apartment complex was curled and melted from the heat of the fire, but no damage was sustained to businesses located on that side of the building. Walker said the construction of the lower part of the building is cement block, which acted as a fire barrier and limited damage to the building.

Because they were able to isolate the parking lot area, power outages in the West Avenue, Church Street, Amity Street areas lasted about an hour, but it was Sunday afternoon before electrical service was restored to the Spencerport Post Office. Luckily, Linder said, crews were able to get the post office back on line by Sunday afternoon, in time for Monday’s holiday package mailings, said to traditionally be one of the heaviest shipping days of the season.

Linder and Walker estimated that 95 percent of the village’s work crews responded to help with the effort that came next. Both full and part time Department of Public Works employees joined eight full and part time Electric Department employees in the tasks of replacing the poles, transformers and wires during the Saturday-Sunday overnight hours and Sunday daytime. They were aided by workers and equipment from Churchville and Bergen, villages which are fellow members of the MEUA, the Municipal Electrical Utilities Association.

At one time, Linder said, four or five bucket trucks were working at the site.

In addition, skilled workers from private companies were called in for specific needs such as cleaning up the transformer oil which had spilled in the parking lot. Spencerport volunteer firemen were also on site.

Once the poles were righted and electricity restored, crews from Frontier Communications and Time Warner Cable worked into last week to check and re-wire their transmission lines.

Residents in some apartments in the Village Square complex and residents of a second floor apartment in a building facing Union Street were relocated overnight at the expense of the production company. Walker said the production company had filed a certificate of insurance with the village and he expected that insurance would cover the costs of the repairs needed due to the accident. Walker said the village’s attorney had determined the company was not required to secure a permit from the village for the downtown filming.