About 3,800 electrical customers in north Columbia were without power this morning after a piece of equipment failed near a city building.

Equipment known as a "jumper" line overheated at about 8:35 a.m. near the Grissom Building, 1313 Lakeview Ave., said Chad Shettlesworth, assistant electrical distribution coordinator for the Columbia Water and Light Department. The equipment is mounted on a utility pole, where power shifts from buried electrical lines to overhead lines.

Outages occurred in north Columbia around Blue Ridge Road, Smiley Lane and Derby Ridge Drive, Shettlesworth said. The utility calculates that 3,848 customers at most were without power.

Service to all but about 700 was restored within 20 minutes, Shettlesworth said. The equipment was replaced, and full service was restored at 9:20 a.m., he said.

Columbia firefighters at 8:42 a.m. were dispatched to the Grissom Building after witnesses reported seeing flames coming from a utility pole, Battalion Chief Steve Sapp said. Sapp said crews did not find fire when they arrived but remained at the scene about 15 minutes as a precaution.

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