Ameren: Events coinciding with smoke in businesses on Siemers unrelated

In the last three weeks, several businesses on or near Siemers Drive have reported smoke in the building in separate incidents.

Cape Girardeau fire chief Rick Ennis called this an "unusual" situation, and Ameren Missouri said the three incidents each were caused by distinct circumstances.

On May 23, Ennis said, at 9:58 a.m., an issue with a power line was reported on Route K at Eagle Ridge School. Between 10 and 11:30 a.m., five incidents were reported on Siemers, Lowe's and Shirley drives, of rooftop HVAC units' motors smoking out, Ennis said.

"In some cases, the unit dumped smoke down into the building," Ennis said.

Ameren Missouri spokesperson Jeni Hagen said Thursday the problem May 23 was caused by a bird disrupting the power supply.

Then, on May 28, Ennis said, at 9:16 a.m., a transformer fire was reported on Route K -- an insulator was burned out on a pole at Eagle Ridge School.

"That resulted in a 9:36 call to one business on Siemers for a rooftop unit motor," Ennis said.

Most recently, Ennis said, at about 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, the department received a call for a pole struck by lightning.

In the next 45 minutes, Ennis said, three incidents were reported on Siemers Drive of rooftop air-conditioning unit motors smoking.

"Two of those cases put smoke into the buildings," Ennis said.

Hagen said lightning struck a power line Tuesday.

"Yes, this is strange and unusual," Ennis said. "Because of that, we've been in contact with Ameren."

Hagen said the same areas of Cape Girardeau were being affected by problems at different substations.

High-voltage power comes into a substation, Hagen said, and those substations step power down to carry it into homes and businesses.

"Typically, substations surround a community," Hagen said. "If one goes out, we can re-route. That's why you may find a common area having problems. It just happened to be in the same area from two of our substations."

Since businesses need more power than residences, Hagen said, they have what's called three-phase power -- three lines deliver power into the business.

On Tuesday, lightning severed one of the three lines, so Ameren de-energized the line, forcing an outage so workers could repair the problem area, Hagen said.

mniederkorn@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3630