Officials: Power outage likely linked to hospital alarm

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WOLO) – The light may be back on, but there were reports of powers outages Thursday night in Lexington and Richland Counties. Around midnight, SCE&G’s Web site shows more than 2,100 people in Richland County and more than 4,400 people in Lexington County are in the dark. We also were without power at our studio on the corner of Main and Gervais between 10 and 15 minutes. Outside our window, we saw several surrounding businesses and street lights were out too. We reached out to SCE&G’s media line to see if they could shed some light on the cause of this outage, but we were told our call would be returned later Friday morning. An incident that occurred a few blocks from us may be linked to that power outage. The Columbia Fire Department responded to a call of a fire at Baptist Medical Center around 2am. It’s located at the corner of Taylor and Sumter Streets. Officials say a malfunctioning generator caused the alarm to go off, but there was no actual fire. A spokesperson for Palmetto Health says the incident forced staff to relocate some patients, but she says they were never in any danger. Crews remained on the scene until they could determine the generator was stable. During that time, the surrounding area was blocked to drivers.