UPDATE: Power Outage Hits Chestnut Hill Residents, Businesses

UPDATE (10 p.m.): A burnt through wire left several hundred Chestnut Hill residents and some businesses at The Street without power Tuesday night.

Most of those customers had been restored as of 8:55 p.m.

Nstar spokesman Bill Zamparelli told Patch the equipment simply failed, leaving wires down and bringing crews to the area for several hours.

Zamparelli said that there were two transformers affected in addition to the downed wires, and it would likely be 1 a.m. before all customers were restored.

The Nstar outage map showed 84 customers remained without power as of 9:45 p.m. According to a post from Brian Ives on the Newton Patch Facebook page, Olde Field Road was one of the areas that remained powerless as of 9:45. Ives also said that police and fire personnel were blocking his street.

Zamparelli said he didn't have details on exactly where the failure occurred, nor could he say specifically why it occurred.

"Things fail, that's what happens," Zamparelli said. "Electricity is often a difficult thing to understand and explain. It's hard to tell you why something failed."

It's unclear what businesses at The Street lost power beyond Cupcake Treat Bar, who tweeted about the power failure there. Tuesday was the opening night for the Showcase SuperLux cinema and Davio's Cucina.

Zamparelli said that the electrical system is designed to handle the load for each customer and the system at The Street would have been designed to adequately handle the electrical needs.

UPDATE (8:55 p.m.): It appears the power outage affected at least a portion of The Street.

"First we lose power, then the fire alarm goes off... Never a dull day at #TheStreet #ChestnutHill," Treat Cupcake Bar tweeted.

According to the Nstar outage map, most customers have been restored. As of 8:55 p.m., just 81 customers remained in the dark.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE: Reports indicate there were people stuck in elevators and emergency personnel checking addresses for emergencies after a power outage in Chestnut Hill Tuesday evening.

Reports also indicate there was smoke in the area.

At 8:35 p.m., Nstar outage maps indicated 683 customers in Newton were without power.

The cause of the outage is unknown at this time. Patch will update when more information becomes available.