Winds were gusting to 70 miles per hour. I was working at my computer at home when I heard a very loud hum outside the house. I shut down, pulled the plug, and went to investigate. A tree had come down on power lines just around the corner. When I got there the pole was already smoking. I said to another guy there, “That doesn’t look good.” Then the thing burst into flames (you can see the scorch marks on the pole in the photo). The guy says, “If that pole breaks, it’ll be a whole lot worse.” But it didn’t have a chance to break. The flames spread to the transformer, and the transformer exploded – bright orange flashes: bam, bam, boom; then a pause; then bam, bam, BOOM. That blew the circuit breakers, cutting the power, and blew out the fire at the same time. It was at around 2 p.m. At four p.m., I went back to see what was happening in the way of repairs. Nothing. The tree trimmers were there but just standing by waiting for guidance from the utility crew which wasn’t there. I could see something going on a block-and-a-half farther down the street. This is where the real action was. The primary had come down in the street and arced long enough to melt and ignite the tar in the pavement, which then proceeded to burn downward like a little volcano in reverse. DPW was there with a backhoe digging up the burning street while the fire department hosed it down and the linemen put the wires back up. My exploding transformer didn’t rate. I went home. It got dark. I lit the candles. Sharon came home, and we celebrated my birthday by candlelight (not bad). We were going to go to Lake Placid for dinner, but we didn’t know if we could get there or, if we did, if we could get back (two state highways were already closed). So we went to a restaurant in a nearby and electrified part of town; but, before getting in the truck, we took a short walk around the corner to see how things were going at the burnt pole. I took my camera. They had replaced the transformer and were rewiring when I captured this picture. We got back from dinner, and the houses were still dark (another tree had come down a little farther down the same line). Power was restored to our street at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday; but, at 8:30 a.m. Friday, over a thousand people in outlying areas were still “in the dark” – and a new storm was coming in.