Fire crews open a door at the Manchester Street Power Station with smoke drifting out. Photo by Andrew Augustus WPRO News

 WPRO Newsroom

Downtown Providence suffered a major power outage Tuesday morning after a transformer failed inside a downtown sub-station, leaving thousands without electricity.

Lights were out in many downtown buildings, elevators stopped, some with people inside, and traffic lights went dark, leaving drivers scrambling to remember long-forgotten traffic rules.

Assistant Deputy Fire Chief Joseph Desmarais said the the problem originated at one sub-station and then affected two other sub-stations in the downtown area.

National Grid President Timothy Horan said the outage may have been caused by a small animal like a squirrel.

“Probably a squirrel, it looks like there were remnants of something down there,” said Horan, pointing to the South Street substation, a block from the Manchester Street power plant where electrical equipment failed, emitting a cloud of smoke with an electrical-type odor.

Providence Mayor Angel Taveras tweeted just after 11:45 A.M. that power was restored to the downtown, and surrounding areas.

During the outage, Nicholas Miorales of the Providence In-town Church Association began directing traffic at the intersection of Washington and Greene Streets with the help of other volunteers.

“We’ve been here for a while we’ve been trying to direct traffic ever since we found out that its been congested and people have been prone to an accident here,” said Morales.

Morales and others were told by police in a passing cruiser to stop directing traffic.

There were no reports of injuries; however Chief Desmarais said firefighters searched the city for people who may have been trapped in elevators. The Garrahy Judicial Complex was also evacuated because of the outage.

According to the National Grid website, more than 4,700 customers were without power.

Crews are investigating what caused the explosion.