4 Days of Darkness

Power is finally back on in an Upper Merion Township apartment complex after four days without electricity.

On Monday, a PECO transformer exploded beneath the Kingswood Apartments in King of Prussia.

The explosion burned up the community’s underground wiring and knocked out power in more than 700 homes.

Crews brought in a generator to cycle power on and off to the units while they replaced electric lines.

Kingswood Apartments claim that they kept in touch with residents through circulating letters and did everything they could to keep them informed of the situation.

They also offered resident’s pizza vouchers and a place to shower.  

“They offered us a $20 Vito’s pizza coupon which compared to what I’m throwing away is nothing,” said resident Shannon Dempsey.

Dempsey and other residents had to deal with the lack of heat as well as a loss of refrigerated and frozen food, which they say Kingswood won’t compensate them for.

Instead, Shannon says that they were told to file a claim for their renter's insurance for the lost food.

“It’s just wrong,” said Shannon.

“I shouldn’t have to tap insurance every single time. They should be accountable for what’s going on.”

“We realize that things like that can happen, acts of God,” said Shannon’s husband Barrie.

“That’s not their fault but its certainly not our fault either.”

Many residents say that they've had sporadic power outages since Novemeber, though none as bad as the one that happened on Monday.

Crews replaced all the wiring and the transformer underneath the complex. For now all Kingswood residents can do is hope that the repairs will be enough to sustain the power.

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