Watch: Massive fire at north Fort Worth electrical substation Wednesday night
The fire that sparked Wednesday night at a Fort Worth power substation is out and crews have left the scene, officials said Thursday morning.
The substation erupted in flames hours before a winter storm hit North Texas with a forecast for inches of snow and sleet, officials with the Fire Department and Oncor Electric Delivery said.
Video of the fire posted to social media shows massive orange flames and black smoke coming from the power substation, which is located off Henrietta Creek Road and Seventeen Lakes Boulevard in far north Fort Worth, near Roanoke.
The Fort Worth Fire Department was first notified of a reported explosion at the power station at around 7:15 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 8, and sent about 15 units to respond to the fire, according to online call logs.
Crews with Oncor Electric Delivery were onsite and worked to disconnect equipment so fire crews could access the area, Oncor officials said in a statement.
Fire crews left the scene shortly before 7 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 9, according to Fort Worth Fire Department spokesperson Craig Trojacek.
Trojacek said the cause of the blaze will be investigated but the Fire Department does not have reason to believe that the fire was started intentionally or was criminal in nature.
All power outages caused by the incident were restored Wednesday night, officials said.
At a news conference late Wednesday night, Trojacek said firefighters were waiting to decide whether to let the fire burn or try to put it out with water.
“There is a lot of oil involved — I’m being told probably about close to roughly 30,000 gallons,” Trojacek said. “We don’t know how much of that is burned off, with it being on fire for the last couple of hours, but that is one of the things that we’re watching is just to make sure.”
Ultimately, “after weighing the pros and cons of each course of action the decision was made in partnership with Oncor engineers to extinguish the fire to bring the incident to a close as quickly and safely as possible,” the Fire Department said in a news release Thursday. “As a wintry mix made its way towards the Metroplex, a massive power outage was not an option. And thankfully, the handful of residents and businesses in the area that initially lost power had it restored quickly. No other customers were affected.”
There were no reported injuries.
“Crews worked in freezing temperatures through the night and well into the morning hours to make sure the fire was completely out and the scene was rendered safe,” the department said in Thursday’s statement.
Oncor also said it has not yet determined the cause of the fire.
Trojacek said that residents of about 20 nearby homes were notified of the fire but they were not ordered to evacuate.
There is heavy damage to the substation, he said.
Hazmat crews monitored the air quality and did not pick up any signs of hazards, Trojacek said.
In a social media post about 8:45 p.m. Wednesday, the Fire Department said that additional FWFD crews and crews from other area departments, including Saginaw, were joining the crews already on scene.
The department urged the public to avoid the area for their safety and the safety of first responders.
This story was originally published January 8, 2025 at 9:35 PM.
