HIGH POINT, N.C. — Power was restored to a High Point neighborhood late Wednesday after a city leaf collection truck pulled down about a dozen utility poles.
William Pope Jr. heard the chaos in the afternoon.
"I heard this loud cracking sound which was the telephone pole breaking and I heard the explosion," Pope said. "Then I heard the crackling of the electricity."
Chunks of power poles and twisted wire were left all over Ingleside Drive. Initially, about 1,000 people lost power. Pope had debris in his yard.
"I had powerlines all across my entire property and two telephone poles in my front yard, inches away from my car in my house," Pope said.
The City of High Point said one of their leaf trucks was driving down the street with the truck bed up. The bed hit one line, and the force brought down 13 power poles.
It started a fire at one of Pope's neighbor's homes and damaged a crawl space.
"That was crazy. I went home and got a fire extinguisher to try to help with that so it was a heck of a day," Pope said.
No one was injured and crews worked for hours to restore power in the neighborhood. Pope said he is grateful for their hard work.
"As much as I've seen these guys do, people need to give them a round of applause because they've done a lot in a very short time," Pope said.
The city said cable and internet providers still need to restore those services. High Point will conduct an internal investigation into the incident.