Tuesday Power Outage Hobbles Golf and Milwaukee Retailers

Businesses at the Golf and Milwaukee intersection in Niles were temporarily closed when there was a power outage Tuesday afternoon.

A power line in front of the Chase Bank branch at Golf snapped at about 1:15pm. Chicagoan Derrick Sanders witnessed the event. While we were watching the Niles police and fire departments respond to the incident, Sanders told me, "I heard a snap, then there was a blue flash, and then the cable dropped to the ground." He added, "Then the grass started on fire."

The fire expired on its own, Sanders said.

Most of the stores at Golf Mill and the Four Flaggs Shopping Plaza were closed during the power failure, which lasted almost two hours. Other stores temporarily shut down were Toys R Us, the aforementioned Chase Bank, and Radio Shack.

Traffic lights at Golf and Milwaukee, as well as the lights at the entrances of Four Flaggs and Golf Mill, weren't operating during the outage.