A rare occurrence caused I-55 lane closures this morning. Both north and southbound lanes were closed and traffic was rerouted between the Litchfield and Carlinville exits for about two hours this morning due to downed power lines. Rural Electric Convenience Cooperative President and CEO David Stuva says an insulator failed on the three phase pole that crosses Interstate 55.

"It shorted out and it actually caused a fire and caught the pole on fire. We were told.. somebody must have called it in to 911, State Police then shut down the interstate to avoid any possibilities of the wires - the phases - falling down on interstate. They never did fall down... we were able to get down there and put a basket truck on the phases and hold them up high so that people could still cross under them under the interstate. We have multiple crews down at the site currently working to replace the pole and restore power to Pioneer Seed and approximately eleven other accounts."

The eleven other accounts are residential accounts also affected by the pole catching on fire. Stuva says it was a strange incident he hasn't seen happen often.

"This shows that equipment can fail and when it does, and you have 7,200 volts going through it, it actually can start a pole on fire."

The southbound lanes reopened at 9:15am and northbound at 9:30am.Thomack 10/27/15