Residents of the east side of Warren and parts of the north end woke up without any electricity Friday, Nov. 13, remaining sans power through the early morning rush hour.

The outage stretched from the state line with Massachusetts, encompassing all of Touisset, down Market Street onto Metacom Avenue and across Child Street to Water Street.

The area included both school buildings, Kickemuit Middle and Hugh Cole Elementary, though classes remained in session with the use of back-up generators.

(Updated, noon, Nov. 13) Initial indications are a transformer in town exploded in the early-morning hours Friday and there may have been an injury involved.

The Times-Gazette has contacted the Warren Police, Fire and Public Works departments for clarification and updates. 

WFD Chief James Sousa  directed the paper to the WPD for details. He did confirm an injury was associated with the incident. Interim Director of Public Works Mary Hunt was unable to comment. She is out of the office attending a League of Cities and Towns meeting.

WPD Lt. Marc Ferreira later said the matter was under investigation and could provide no further details at the times.

Earlier in the day,  Hunt said Rhode Island Energy had yet to inform town officials the reason for the outage. Anecdotally, Hunt, who resides in the affected area, said she was awake at 5 a.m. Friday, seeing and hearing a loud flash in the distance from her home.

As of 8:30 a.m., 2,673 customers remained without power. RI Energy had yet to include an estimated time of resolution for the situation on its website.

By shortly after 10:30, most customers had their power restored. Just 22 remained without electricity, RI Energy projecting all would have their situations resolved by approximately 12:30 p.m.