Police said a man -- in his 40s or 50s -- cut the lock off a PECO electric box in an attempt to steal some copper wire inside ... incident immediately caused a power outage for other businesses ...

Power was knocked out for about 1,000 homes and businesses in a Northeast Philadelphia neighborhood Thursday after police said a man tried to steal copper wire from a transformer box owned by PECO ...

Wires are the individual insulated or bare conductors inside the ... for running power to a large detached shop building.

the wire inside it melts if the current is too large; once the fuse has melted, the circuit is broken and no more current flows.