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The Hunt Ridge Mall in Bedford Village was evacuated Friday after a transformer malfunction caused a brownout in the building.
The Bedford Village Fire Department responded to the call at about 1:30 p.m. after employees from Benedek & Ticehurst, a landscape architectural company located on the second floor, noticed smoke coming from the utility closet. No injuries were reported at the mall, which is located on Route 22.
It was me and another co-worker, said Genna Kupinska, an architect with Benedek & Ticehurst. We smelled smoke coming from the closet with all the breakers and we opened the door and saw more smoke. We told the property managers and they called the fire department.
Kupinska said the power went out just before she smelled the smoke.
Captain Jerome Newman of the Bedford Fire Department said one of the phases of an electrical transformer went out, causing the brownout at the mall.
Newman said the building was ventilated and evacuated. Because there was no power in the building, Newman said he wanted to get things corrected as soon as possible.
The A&P Supermarket in the building had to close and use dry ice to preserve its perishable items until the power came back on.
Gerald Griffiths, the owner of Bedford Pharmacy, said his business was virtually shut down because of the ordeal. Since the computers couldnt be turned on, no prescriptions could be filled or refilled. The only thing people could do was pick up prescriptions that had already been filled prior to the brownout.
Some lights are still on and we have one cash register, thats essentially mechanical, Griffith said.
Anthony Sinagra, assistant manager of the Citibank branch located inside the mall, said the bank lost power, but he didnt think there was anything serious until the firetrucks arrived.
Then we saw the smoke and everyone evacuated, Sinagra said.
Newman said power was restored to the mall at about 4:30 p.m.
There were thousands of power outages in Westchester County Friday, with nearly a thousand outages reported in Bedford at 5 p.m. according to NYSEG. NYSEG officials were unavailable to for comment Friday night.
Because of Fridays sweltering heat, Newman said EMTs were on hand to regularly check the condition of firefighters at the scene. Newman said coolers filled with cold ice rags were also at the scene.
The heat was big concern, Newman said.
Firefighters from Banksville, Mount Kisco and Pound Ridge assisted Bedford at the scene. The Bedford Police Department and Westchester EMS were also at the scene.
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