An electrical fire at Mount Vernon Road caused power to be lost in River Village, George Washington Village, Park Village, Dogue Creek Village and other areas on post Sunday afternoon. The cause of the fire was a broken high-voltage power line failure.

Fort Belvoir Fire and Emergency Services personnel arrived on the scene first, followed by personnel from Dominion Power who turned off the power before FES firefighters could begin to extinguish the fire. Power was off on post for about two hours.

“FES personnel were able to put out the fire in about five minutes after Dominion personnel turned the power off,” said John Weaver, Fort Belvoir FES fire marshall. “FES personnel from North Post, South Post and Davison Army Airfield were on scene to put out the fire.”

FES’s continuous training allowed them to quickly put the fire out and prevent servicemembers, their Family members and civilians from sustaining injury.

“We always continue our education,” said Weaver of FES’s training practices. “Learning is an everyday process, so we always want to learn new processes and how to use new technology.”

Villages at Belvoir were prepared to open a neighborhood center for residents in River, George Washington, Park and Dogue Creek Villages should the power outage have lasted longer, according to Jennifer Watkins, Villages at Belvoir marketing manager.

“In the event of an extended power outage,” said Watkins. “We would open one of our neighborhood centers as a cooling center.”

Courtesy of Belvoir Eagle. http://www.belvoireagle.com/news/article_9c8f6564-cea7-11e2-8fd5-0019bb30f31a.html#user-comment-area