3 outages keep UI scrambling Three outages caused by equipment failure -- two in Trumbull and one in Shelton -- left thousands of United Illuminating Co. customers without power for brief periods Wednesday.

UI spokeswoman Myra Stanley said the first outage was reported at 9:07 a.m., when a high truck with an extension damaged wires near Forestview Street in Trumbull.

That outage affected 1,537 customers in both Trumbull and Bridgeport's North End. All were back on line by 11:05 a.m., she said.

At 12:15 p.m. in Shelton, about 1,900 customers lost power because of an unspecified equipment failure, according to Stanley.

Most of these customers got their power back at 1:30 p.m., while electricity to all was restored at 2:30 p.m., she said.

The blackout affected Shelton High School, where classes were dismissed early.

The second Trumbull outage occurred at 12:40 p.m., in the Skyview Drive area, disconnecting about 1,859 customers. They were back on line at 3 p.m., Stanley said.

This failure affected both Trumbull High and Booth Hill schools, which had to rely on backup power for essential lights in the afternoon, too late for officials to arrange an early dismissal.

Although there are concerns about the utility's capacity with the arrival of warm weather, Stanley said Tuesday's demands were not high enough to cause difficulty.

This was not weather related, she said of the three outages.

-- STAFF REPORTS

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-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), May 03, 2001