Traffic lights along Speer Boulevard and other nearby streets went out around 8:30 p.m. Lack of power at the Pepsi Center forced officials to cancel the Cher concert. Denver Police officers were directing traffic. There were major traffic delays in the area. People should hold onto their tickets because concert officials are trying to reschedule the show.
Xcel said it's had 24 pole fires caused by arcing of the wires and transformer problems related to the moisture and magnesium chloride. More problems were expected and extra crews were called in to work.
Earlier in the day, about 7,000 Xcel customers in the Federal Heights area were without electricity when fallen branches tripped a feeder line at 84th and Pecos. Xcel spokesman Mark Stutz said the outage stretched from 72nd Avenue to 92nd Avenue and from Federal Boulevard to Washington Street.
The bad weather was also blamed for a utility pole fire that briefly closed U.S. 36 between Federal and Sheridan. The damaged poles left live wires dangerously close to the highway, which was closed for about a half hour while repairs were made. It was re-opened by 2:00 p.m.
In an unrelated incident, a power pole fire in the median of I-25 shut that highway in both directions at Baptist Road, just north of Colorado Springs for more than an hour Monday at about 1:30 p.m. That fire was also blamed on the magnesium chloride.
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