One lane of Route 17 in Mahwah was closed down after a transformer caught on fire during the thunderstorm that passed through Mahwah Wednesday afternoon, Mahwah Police Chief James Batelli said at 2:50 p.m. Wednesday.

The small fire may have been caused by a lightning strike, Mahwah Assistant Fire Chief Brad Stio said.

The transformer was one at the corner of Route 17 South and Macarthur Boulevard, he said.

The lane was closed down for several minutes while authorities called for crews from Orange & Rockland to respond to the scene and shut down power to the impacted area, Batelli said.

“Orange and Rockland notified several hours before the storm struck and advised of the severe weather warning and routine precautions that should be taken,” Batelli said. “Routine crews were being reassigned to handle downed power lines and other related storm outages if the storm struck as anticipated.”

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