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DTE Provides Free Water, Ice To Plymouth Residents Without Power After Fire

PLYMOUTH (WWJ) - DTE Energy crews are handing out free bottled water and ice to Plymouth residents who lost power following a fire at a substation Wednesday night.

Fire Plymouth (Greg Festian WWJ Tipster)
Fire at DTE substation in Plymouth (Greg Festian WWJ Tipster)

An estimated 4,000 homes and businesses were affected by the blaze in the downtown area, but crews have restored power to about 1,300 of them through the use of some portable equipment.

"We're also continuing to install other equipment to restore additional customers in the area," said Ryan Stowe, executive director of Distribution Operations. "We have portable generators and a portable substation are the biggest pieces of equipment out here that we're working on."

[DTE Outage Map]

Thursday's wet weather hasn't helped matters much, Stowe said.

"The rain's an annoyance for us, but folks are continuation to work through it. Any kind of severe weather, lightning or heavy wind gusts, things like that will slow us down — so we're weather dependent on some of that restoration plan."

Ryan said DTE has not determined the cause of the fire, as their priority right now is to restore power.

The free water and ice is being distributed in the Cultural Center Parking Lot on Farmer Street.

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