Power outage to more than 1,700 Peco customers near Washington Avenue chocolate factory
Crews received a call concerning downed wires at 21st and Washington Streets around 10 a.m. About 1,730 customers were affected in the 19146 area code, which encompasses parts of Southwest Center City, Grays Ferry and Point Breeze.
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More than 1,700 Peco customers in South Philadelphia lost power Saturday morning in what was thought to be related to demolition of the Frankford Chocolate Factory.
Crews received a call concerning downed wires at 21st and Washington Streets around 10 a.m., said Peco spokeswoman Deb Yemenijian. About 1,730 customers were affected around 10:30 in the 19146 zip code, which encompasses parts of Southwest Center City, Grays Ferry, and Point Breeze.
"I do understand that there was some type of building issue out there, but I don't have any information specifically," Yemenijian said.
Charles Danan, a member of the Facebook group UrbanPHL, posted a photo sent to him by a friend from their home at 21st and Kimball Streets showing what appears to be spillage from the demolition of the Frankford Chocolate Factory along the north side of Washington Avenue between 21st and 22nd Streets.
>> READ MORE: Group razing Frankford Chocolate Factory building to buy adjacent land for development
"They only said they heard a loud bang around 9:45 this morning, lost power, and looked out the window to this," Danan said in a message Saturday, referencing the photo featured above.
It's unclear if the outages were directly related to the demolition. Developer Ori Feibush recently paid $15.5 million for the nearly 170,000-square-foot building, with plans of turning the structure into apartments, townhouses, and stores.
Feibush did not return a request for comment Saturday.
Power had been restored to most of the affected area by 11 a.m.