3 Hospital Buildings Lose Power / VCU Medical Center’s Brief Outage Caused By Cable Sh Ort-Circuit

By JIM NOLAN

A short-circuit in a 7,000-volt underground cable knocked out power for an hour yesterday morning in three buildings in the VCU Medical Center complex in downtown Richmond.

The hospital’s Children’s Pavilion, Sanger Hall and the Nelson Clinic lost power about 11:16 a.m., said Dominion Virginia Power spokesman Richard Zuercher.

Sanger Hall, which houses academic and administrative offices and laboratories for the Medical College of Virginia, was briefly evacuated.

VCU spokeswoman Malorie Janis said backup generators came on instantaneously after the outage, preventing any disruption to the hospital’s outpatient pediatric and clinical operations.

Dominion restored power to the buildings by 12:25, after isolating the short-circuit under the ground at 11th and Marshall streets, Zuercher said. Pinpointing the problem spot was made easier by a manhole cover that was blown off the street by energy released when the large power cable ruptured.

“It caused the cover to come up and go down,” Zuercher said. “Fortunately, the rear wheel of a sedan was resting on top of the cover at the time.”

Richmond fire Lt. Keith Vida said the explosion briefly lifted the back of the vehicle, which had been waiting for the light at the intersection to change.

Officials said nobody was injured in either the manhole explosion or the power outage.

Contact staff writer Jim Nolan at jnolan@timesdispatch.com or (804) 649-6061.

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