Power restored to Spring Creek apartment complex in Brooklyn following outage
EAST NEW YORK, Brooklyn (WABC) -- Power has been restored to an apartment complex in Brooklyn after an outage that affected thousands of residents Sunday morning.
Firefighters say the power went out around 5 a.m. at the Spring Creek Towers apartments, formerly known as Starrett City, in East New York.
The complex has its own power plant, unrelated to Con Edison.
The FDNY and NYPD responded to the scene, assisting residents without electricity. Six people had to be rescued from elevators that were stuck.
One woman said her son was stuck in an elevator in their building for about three hours.
"The sheer size of the complex, the amount of buildings, the amount of elevators, it's a difficult task," said FDNY Deputy Chief Michael Ajello.
The power plant staff worked to identify and correct the cause of the outage, and power was restored by about 10 a.m.
Even with the outage officially resolved, what a spokesperson for the complex owner described as "switch problems in the building" left some apartment towers without power or working elevators until late Sunday afternoon.
"They want their money for rent, we want our services for what we are paying for,"said longtime resident Maria Cruz. "I'm a disabled senior and I'm on a fixed income, but yes, I still pay my rent on time."
"The majority of the people that live here are people that are elderly," said Luis Suarez. "They can barely make it. It's not right, you know?"
There are 46 buildings and about 15,000 residents in the complex.
The FDNY is investigating the death of one resident who was using an oxygen tank to breath, but it is not yet known whether the death is related to the outage.
Three people were treated for minor injuries.
The owners of the property, Brooksville Company, say the power plant will undergo a major overhaul in September, including the installation of backup generators.
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