A primary power line fell down onto another power line behind the city's safety center Wednesday which caused half the city to lose power at 5:10 p.m.

Fire Capt. Mark Stone said a 69,000-volt primary line fell down onto a 12,500-volt line "which created a loud 'bang noise' that was reported as an explosion to Stow dispatch."

Stone said he was told the substations at Graham Road as well as one in the Wyoga Lake area were both "knocked out" by the power line falling down.

FirstEnergy reported about 14,000 homes in a city of 38,000 residents was out. The outage also caused many of the city's street lights to go out backing up traffic, especially down Graham Road around rush hour, and calls flooded Stow's dispatch center. 

The downed line caused a grass fire on City Center Boulevard near the service department's driveway too. 

(Quick editor's note: That's where my adopt-a-spot is! I'll have to make sure it's OK tomorrow.)

"Since the area is frequented by many people in Stow, we were quick to restrict access to the area because of concerns over people walking too close to a potentially energized power line," said Stone. "We had a couple other calls at the same time due to the power outage that taxed our resources but had off-duty personnel report to the station to help cover the calls until things were back to near normal."

Things were back to normal around 7 p.m. when FirstEnergy Spokesman Mark Durbin said all but 12 homes had power restored. 

The cause of why the powerline fell onto another is still unknown. Check Stow Patch for details as they become available.