Guilford County Power Outages Traced to Blown Fuse, Orange Glow Reported
A blown fuse lit up the sky behind a Greensboro home on March 17, dropping neighborhood power for roughly 460 customers before crews cut that number to about 110.
A bright orange glow, smoke, and buzzing sounds rattled a Greensboro neighborhood on the morning of March 17 before Duke Energy traced the source to a blown fuse, with crews ultimately cutting a peak outage count of about 460 customers down to roughly 110 as restoration work continued.
Reporter Giselle Thomas spotted Duke Energy trucks pulled up on Forest Valley Road, just off Bryan Boulevard, where workers had been called out specifically to handle underground infrastructure repairs. One crew member told her they were working on the underground portion in that area. By the time Thomas reported live, the outage count had fallen to around 111, a significant drop from the approximately 460 customers who had been without power earlier in the morning around 5 a.m.
The orange glow drew particular attention around 6:20 a.m., when the light appeared coming from behind a home in the neighborhood. Thomas reported seeing smoke and hearing buzzing sounds at the scene. Greensboro Fire Department responded to check the area. Fire Chief Dwayne Church confirmed there was no active fire and no emergency. Jeff Brooks of Duke Energy later identified the cause: a fuse had blown.
By mid-morning, Duke Energy's outage map showed the damage had been contained to a handful of scattered pockets across Greensboro. About 20 customers near Benjamin Lake remained without service, with another cluster still offline near West Greenway Drive. Duke Energy said crews were isolating remaining outages and restoring power where conditions allowed.
The outages followed recent severe weather that produced storm debris across Triad roads and stressed underground electrical lines throughout the area. Duke Energy had not provided a restoration timeline for the remaining affected customers.
Anyone still without power was advised to keep generators running only in well-ventilated spaces and to stay away from any downed lines, which can remain energized even when they appear inactive.
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