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Home > Leadership > Mayor > Archive Press Releases > 2006 Archives > July 2006 > CITY HALL POWER OUTAGE INVESTIGATED

CITY HALL POWER OUTAGE INVESTIGATED


Source/Contact
Office of the Mayor
Peter K. Culter
Director of Communications
716-851-4841

Elevator Mechanical Room May Have Been Source of Temporary Outage
 
BUFFALO—Following an investigation conducted by city departments including Public Works and Fire, working in collaboration with representatives of National Grid, Simplex (company who developed and maintains City Hall alarm system) and Bison Elevator, today’s alarm at City Hall appears to have been caused by a heat detector in the elevator mechanical room on the 27th floor. 
 
The building’s computer system indicates that one detector reached 180 degrees, while two other detectors reached 130 degrees.  As a result, power was automatically cut off to City Hall’s high-rise elevators (serving all floors above the 13th floor) and the police/fire communications systems. 
 
“This is the way the system is supposed to work,” said Public Works Commissioner Joseph Giambra.  “We want all electrical circuits off so that if the sprinkler system turns on (at about 200 degrees), there will be no electrical service in the affected areas.  We are still trying to find out what caused such a spike in temperature in that room, but based on where the sensor was located it may have been caused by the overheating of the generator that powers the manually operated freight elevator.” 
 
Because of the immediate shutdown of the high-rise elevators, Buffalo Fire Department firefighters walked from the 13th through the 27th floor searching for the source of the power outage and also provided support to disabled workers who could not be evacuated since the elevators had shut down (had a fire occurred, the firefighters would have removed the disabled employees from the building).
 
“I commend all of our city employees for their orderly and responsive evacuation of City Hall, thereby permitting members of the Buffalo Fire Department and other city departments, including Public Works, to quickly respond to the situation,” said Mayor Byron Brown. “I am particularly proud of our Buffalo firefighters who again demonstrated their professionalism and dedication to the safety and welfare of the citizens of Buffalo. They did a tremendous job.”