Hulton Road in Oakmont reopened to one lane after a large fallen tree and down wires caused a 9-hour closure
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Hulton Road in Oakmont reopened Friday night to one lane after a large oak tree fell across the road, between Fifth and Seventh streets late Friday morning, pulling down electric lines, causing a power outage and blocking the well-traveled street for at least eight hours.
The tree came down on a pickup truck.
Oakmont fire Chief Joe Flanick said the driver was able to get out on his own. The man, who was not identified, was taken to a nearby hospital for an evaluation. His condition was not immediately known.
No other injuries were reported.
Flanick said the road reopened to one lane around the site about 9 p.m.
The lengthy closure allowed tree removal crews to clear the giant tree from the street.
“It was this really crazy noise that I’d never heard before,” said resident Samantha Calderone, who lives a few doors down from where it fell. “It’s been a very eventful day on Hulton Road.”
Around 3 p.m., what appeared to be a transformer explosion sent sparks flying and downed wires set fire to shrubbery in front of a house along the 500 block of Hulton Road.
Borough police and tree cutters reacted quickly and used fire extinguishers to keep the flames from reaching the house.
Flanick said no one was inside the house.
Calderone said the explosion woke her up from a nap.
”I’ve been sleeping most of the day because I have a migraine,” she said. “I just came out to see what was happening. We thought most of the craziness had died down because we heard them chopping up the tree. We thought everything was done at this point, but I guess not.”
Oakmont police and people from BJ tree service quickly respond to a transformer explosion and wires coming down setting fire to shrubbery near house along the 500 block of Hulton Road. pic.twitter.com/EYlCBuJJGZ
— Mike D. (@MikeJdiVittorio) April 15, 2022
A resident in the affected area reported that their power was restored at about 8:20 Friday night. Duquesne Light’s website had reported nearly 200 Oakmont residents without power at 6:50 p.m., which was down from earlier reports.
The utility company’s website listed no outages in Oakmont as of 9:10 p.m.
Police had been directing traffic at multiple intersections while the power was knocked out.
Molly Miller was inside her residence along Hulton Road when she said she heard a loud bang shortly before noon.
“It sounded like a transformer exploding,” Miller said.
Miller said she went outside to see what happened and saw the large tree down and a nearby truck with extensive damage.
Joyce Hanz and Michael DiVittorio are Tribune-Review staff writers. You can contact Joyce at 724-226-7725, jhanz@triblive.com and Michael at at 412-871-2367 or mdivittorio@triblive.com. Megan Tomasic contributed to this report.