West Penn Power crews were prepared to respond to heat-related outages this week, but a demolition mishap knocked out electricity instead.

Crews were dispatched to the former Denny’s restaurant on Route 30 in Irwin, where an excavation contractor struck a communications line during demolition work Wednesday. The accident caused a utility pole to snap, according to FirstEnergy spokesperson Bridget McNie.

“Our crews responded quickly, isolated the affected equipment and began restoration efforts,” McNie told TribLive.

As restoration efforts continued into the evening, however, utility crews discovered a technical switching issue that required attention.

“The line was temporarily taken back out of service so the issue could be corrected and safely resolved,” McNie told TribLive.

The second outage made for a difficult evening at some businesses, including at Mr. Mike’s, located just across Route 30.

“It was horrible,” owner Angela Furno said. “We had a full restaurant with people watching the (World Cup) soccer game when the power went out again around 9:30 p.m.”

Furno said the restaurant’s internet connection also failed.

“I had food orders halfway done that we had to cancel,” Furno said. “It came back on around 10:30 p.m.”

Nearby at Julie’s Bubble Tea & Smoothies, staff associate Mia Harris said she received a notification around 9:30 p.m. that the business had lost power.

“We had power when we came in this morning, but we didn’t have any internet,” Harris said. “We have two large coolers, two freezers and two ice machines, and they were alright.”

Fewer than 20 customers were without electricity Thursday morning. Power was completely restored by early afternoon, according to FirstEnergy outage maps.

McNie said about 1,200 customers lost power at the peak of the outage. The affected area included much of the Route 30 commercial corridor between the Pennsylvania Turnpike and Tinkers Run, as well as areas south of the highway.

It was the only major outage listed in West Penn Power’s service area, outside of a few isolated pockets affecting fewer than 20 customers each.