ARLINGTON, Va. - About 250 seniors got a rude awakening on Monday morning when a transformer exploded outside their Arlington apartment complexes, triggering a gas fire and an evacuation.

"Who likes to be woken up in the morning? -- pounding on the door, 'What do you want?' -- you know," said Rosa Lee Watson, who lives in Elmwood House, one of two complexes affected in the 600 block of North Madison Street in Arlington.

Some residents said they heard an explosion.

Kevin Waters, a resident of Lockwood House, the other impacted building, observed, "By the time we got out here, we heard a loud boom, but everyone was safe and out of harm's way."

"There was a big flame that erupted," said Diana Paliotta.

Utility workers believe a parking sign had severed an electrical wire, sparking an underground fire and triggering the transformer explosion.

"That's ultimately what caused the cable to fail and the power outage that affected so many customers here," said Dominion Power spokeswoman Le-Ha Anderson.

Without knowing exactly what had happened, the center management quickly called for help and began evacuating residents from the buildings. Though some residents admitted they were less than pleased by the early awakening, none was hurt.

"Some people panicked [and were] confused going out the doors," said Harold Smith, a Lockwood House resident. "I saw smoke coming from the ground, from the grass."

The residents have been taken by bus to nearby Ashlawn Elementary School, where the Red Cross will keep them comfortable until they can return home.

One person was put on an ambulance, but that appears to been due to heat-related illness, not a result of the explosion.

Animal control officers were sent into the building to rescue pets.

"They were all scared. There were three cats and a dog. And all the cats were hiding under the beds, which is expected, that's the first place we look. They didn't know we were there to rescue them," said Fairfax County (web | news) Animal Control officer Jennifer Milburn.

Diana Paliotta was relieved to see her kitten, who's so new, she hasn't even had a chance to name it.

Most of the damage was minor and located outside the buildings.

The residents are being asked not to return to their homes until fire investigators can definitively determine the cause of the explosion and can declare the buildings safe.

Residents here say they are shocked something like a sign, caused such a disruption.

"That's unbelievable," Harold Smith said. "It's been there for years. It's just a fluke, I guess."

Dominion Power crews were still on the scene Monday evening, working to repair the transformer.

Weeks of rain may have had something to do with the cable problem, oversaturating the earth and deteriorating the wires.

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