Suffolk News-Herald

An electric short at the Hair Cuttery left several Suffolk Shopping Center businesses in the dark Wednesday afternoon.

Firefighters were called out around 3 p.m. to the hair salon, located in the 1400 block of North Main Street, after the electric meter behind the building caught on fire, said Capt. Jim Judkins, spokesman for the Suffolk Fire Department.

The short forced an entire strip of stores – running from Subway to Anne’s Hallmark – to lose power for more than an hour, Judkins said. With the exception of the Hair Cuttery, most of the business had reopened by the time firefighters left the scene around 5 p.m.

As firefighters were dealing with the electric short, additional units were called out to several stores, including Hallmark and Belk’s, after the incident prompted security alarms to sound, Judkins said.

&uot;We were getting swamped for awhile,&uot; he said. &uot;It was pretty dramatic.&uot;

A similar incident occurred around 4:30 p.m. Tuesday when the underground wiring behind Tidewater Occupational Center caught on fire, Judkins said. Initially called in as a brush fire, firefighters arriving on the scene discovered smoke and fire coming from the ground, he said.

No one was injured in either incident.