Transformer Explosion Knocks Out UMBC Power

UPDATE Friday: The UMBC campus is closed Friday due to the power outage.

A transformer explosion at UMBC knocked out power to the campus and threw a massive fireball into the sky Thursday evening.

Around 8:40 p.m., one of several transformers adjacent to the campus police headquarters exploded, causing several small grass fires nearby.

A huge orange fireball rose above the police station.

The explosion occurred within minutes of the conclusion of the graduation ceremony of Lansdowne High School at the Retriever Activity Center, and heat could be felt all the way to the fine arts building.

"I was coming up the hill and heard this ba-boom and saw a gas ball a hundred feet wide," says Rob Robinson of Arbutus.

"I was in my truck at the stop light and felt the heat," says Steve Mang of Columbia, who teaches chemistry at UMBC.

The grass fires were put out by campus police officers using fire extinguishers. Baltimore County Fire Department equipment responded to the scene within eight minutes.

According to Breaking News Network, firefighters are inspecting several buildings on campus for the presence of smoke.

The explosion spewed an oily substance over an area about a hundred feet wide, including the side of the police station building and two police cars parked out front.

With power out across campus, students emerged from darkened residences to congregate along Loop Road and watch the activity.

One student, who asked not to be identified, says that the lights flicked several times before the explosion.

"I was in my apartment and the lights were blinking and blinking, and then this happened," he says.