Philly electric company loses power at downtown HQ

PHILADELPHIA – Philadelphia's major electric company is investigating what led to a power outage at its downtown headquarters that led to a building-wide evacuation.

Fire Capt. Jeffrey Thompson says firefighters responding to the PECO (PEE'-koh) building Wednesday found that a transformer had malfunctioned.

PECO spokeswoman Cathy Engel says the company is looking into what caused the problem and trying to make sure everything is now in working order. She says about 2,000 employees in the building were evacuated as a precaution around 2:30 p.m. and were eventually sent home early. No customers were affected.

PECO serves 1.6 million electric and 486,000 natural gas customers in southeastern Pennsylvania. It is a subsidiary of Exelon Corp.