Fireball At PSEG Station In Essex County; Nearby Towns Hear Boom

ROSELAND, NJ — An electrical breaker at a PSE&G facility in Roseland blew on Thursday night, but there is no danger to the community, authorities said.

According to the Roseland Police Department, a breaker blew at the PSE&G facility on Eisenhower Parkway at 9:55 p.m., causing a loud boom.

“PSE&G reported there are no power outages and no damage to the facility,” Roseland police stated. “There is no danger to the community at all.”

The boom was heard in several nearby towns, as reported on multiple social media groups.

On Friday, a PSE&G spokesperson offered the following statement about the incident:

"At about 9:45 p.m. last night, a very large piece of equipment malfunctioned at our Roseland Switching Station on Eisenhower Parkway, causing a fireball that extinguished itself. There were no injuries. We’ve heard reports of nearby homes shaking and that is possible given the size of the equipment. (It’s about the size of a subcompact car.) There were no injuries and no outages. Up to 3,000 customers may have experienced flickering lights. (Customers are on our distribution system and this occurred in our transmission system.)"

The TRV, transient recovery voltage and equipment will be replaced; it will not affect customers, PSE&G stated.

The cause of the malfunction is under investigation, PSE&G said.

Send local news tips and correction requests to eric.kiefer@patch.com

Learn more about posting announcements or events to your local Patch site. Sign up for Patch email newsletters.