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Downed power lines trapped homeowners in Richmond neighborhood

Posted at 7:43 AM, Jul 24, 2017
and last updated 2017-07-24 13:01:40-04

RICHMOND, Va. -- Downed power lines  knocked out electricity and trapped some homeowners in their South Richmond neighborhood Monday morning.

Dominion Energy crews had been working to restore power to about 50 customers near the intersection of Berwick and Vesper roads, off Cherokee Road, in Stratford Hills.

"We got a tree crew out there this morning and removed a tree that had broken off. The tree blocked access to one home," a Dominion Energy spokesperson said. "Once our tree crew cut up the tree, the couple was able to get out and leave their home by way of their driveway. Our crews will be back out there later today to replace a utility pole and transformer and string up new wire."

Seth Eastman lives off Vesper Road and says he heard two loud "booms" Monday around 5:30 a.m.

The tree fell down, bringing down power lines, crashing down on his truck.

"It was definitely on fire and also kind of smoldering in there,” he said.

"Grabbed cold coffee, ate cold pizza and got ready for work and then realized I couldn't get out of the neighborhood,” said Pat Lelacheur.

The cause of the outage and downed power lines remains under investigation.

Richmond Police and Richmond Fire crews also responded to the neighborhood.

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