Ohio State Patrol
© Fox8
Residents and business owners in normally-quiet North Royalton reported hearing a series of loud noises.

"If you're in the building at the time, it'll actually knock you out of your seat, it's such a large boom," said Steve Schwarz, owner of The Jump Yard, a family amusement center on York Road.

He said the source of at least some of the loud noise complaints is a utility pole on York. It's blown fuses a dozen times in the past year, each time knocking out power to his business, Schwarz said.

"It's not a bomb or anything, that some people are fearing when they hear those type noises. But it's definitely having a dramatic effect on our business," he said.


Schwarz said he is asking FirstEnergy to find a solution to the ongoing problem because the blown fuses are not only loud, they keep shutting down his business as he's trying to recover from the COVID-19 shutdown.

"There's not much worse than telling a 4-year-old that he can't have his birthday party that's he been looking forward to and all of his friends are here, we have no power in the building," he said.

In response to FOX 8's questions, FirstEnergy issued a statement that reads in part, "We have done a thorough investigation and found that the outages have been caused by a variety of reasons, including vehicle accidents and high winds... We are also taking additional steps to proactively install new transformers that provide electric service to this customer and the nearby area."

North Royalton police said another possible contributing factor to the noise complaints could be heavy road construction on the Ohio Turnpike. It cuts through North Royalton and some of the other communities where the complaints are common.

"I know there are gas wells in this town. It is a possibility the gas well has something to do with that boom, maybe there's a release point, something that is maybe timely or necessary in the middle of the night. A lot of things are timed that way," Detective Dave Loeding said.

Investigators said because the reports of unusually loud noises have been received in Northeast Ohio cities that are far apart, it's likely that any number of different sources are to blame for the series of "booms."