Should I call the power company or an electrician?

If your whole neighborhood is out, it is the utility. If only part of your home lost power while the utility is fine, the problem is inside the house, and that is us.

What if I smell burning but cannot find the source?

Shut off power to the affected area if you can do so safely, keep people away, and call right away. A burning smell with no obvious source is exactly the kind of hidden fault that needs a professional fast.

Is a tripped breaker an emergency?

Usually not, if it resets and holds. If it trips repeatedly or will not reset, or if there is heat or a burning smell, treat it as urgent.

Service

Emergency Electrician Services

Call (857) 855-7899 Get a Free Quote

A licensed electrician working on an open electrical panel by work light during a night emergency call

When the power goes out in part of your home, an outlet sparks, or you smell something burning at the panel, you need help fast and you need it done right. Boston Light & Power responds to electrical emergencies across Boston and the South Shore, around the clock. We find the problem, make it safe, and get your power back, and we tell you honestly what caused it so it does not happen again.

Electrical emergencies are not the place to wait, guess, or try a temporary fix. A sparking outlet or a hot panel is a genuine fire risk. Calling a licensed electrician quickly is the safest move you can make, and it often costs less than the damage that comes from waiting.

Electrical Emergency? Call (857) 855-7899

Call us right away for

If you see any of the following, treat it as urgent and call. These are the situations where minutes matter.

A partial power loss, like a kitchen or a floor going dark with no utility outage
Burning smells, buzzing, or warmth at outlets or the panel
Sparking outlets or switches
Breakers that trip repeatedly or will not reset
Scorch marks, melted outlets, or exposed wiring
Water damage near electrical equipment, including a flooded basement with a live panel

One symptom on its own may be minor, but any of these combined with heat, smell, or sparks means you should not wait. When in doubt, call and describe what you are seeing, and we will tell you whether it is safe to wait or something we need to look at now.

What to do while you wait

If you smell burning or see sparks, shut off the affected circuit at the panel if you can do so safely, and keep people and pets away from the area. Do not touch wet or damaged electrical equipment, and never stand in water near a live panel. Do not keep resetting a breaker that will not hold, because it is tripping to protect you. Then call us and we will walk you through the next steps while we head your way.

Common emergencies we fix

Half the house going dark often traces back to a failing panel, a bad breaker, or a loose connection hidden in a junction box. If the panel is the cause, a panel upgrade or service upgrade may be the real fix rather than a patch that fails again. A big part of emergency work is diagnosis: the symptom is rarely the cause, so we find what actually went wrong, fix that, and show you what it was.

Why a licensed electrician matters

In an emergency there is a temptation to grab the fastest or cheapest option. Electrical faults are the wrong place to cut corners. A licensed electrician does not just make the power come back, we make sure the underlying fault is resolved and that the repair meets code, so it does not return as something worse. We carry the license, the training, and the diagnostic tools to find a hidden fault quickly and fix it safely, then document what we did.

Frequently asked questions

Yes. We answer emergency calls around the clock across the South Shore.

Serving the South Shore

Boston Light & Power serves Boston, Milton, Quincy, Braintree, Weymouth, Hingham, Scituate, Cohasset, Hanover, and Norwell. We are licensed under Massachusetts Master Electrician License #24281-A.

Electrical Emergency? We Answer 24/7.

Burning smell, sparking outlet, hot panel or sudden power loss? Boston Light & Power provides 24/7 emergency electrical service across Boston, Milton, Quincy, Braintree, Weymouth, Hingham, Scituate and Cohasset. Licensed electricians, every hour of every day.

Call (857) 855-7899 Now

What to expect when you call

When you reach us with an emergency, we ask a few quick questions to gauge the danger and, if needed, tell you how to make the area safe right away. Then we get to you as fast as we can. On arrival we diagnose before we touch anything, isolate the fault, and restore power safely. Before we leave, we explain what failed, what we did, and whether anything else needs attention soon so today's problem does not become next month's problem.

We serve the whole South Shore, so wherever you are among our towns, help is local. You are not waiting on someone driving in from an hour away.

Do not wait on an electrical hazard

A burning smell or sparking outlet is a fire risk. Call (857) 855-7899 now and we will make it safe.