Wednesday, July 8, 2015

2 workers injured in accidents at electrical substation, nearly 10,000 lose power in Seattle, WA


From Seattle City Light
From Seattle City Light

SEATTLE, WA

More than 9,600 customers lost power Wednesday afternoon on Seattle’s east side after two workers were injured in an accident at an electrical substation.

Affected neighborhoods included parts of Capitol Hill, Madison Park and Madrona.

Seattle City Light first tweeted about the outage shortly after 2 p.m.
City Light said the accident at the East Pine Substation triggered the power outage.

Seattle Fire Department officials said a City Light worker was injured in a 20-foot fall from a ladder around the same time of the outage. This happened near 23rd Avenue and East Pike Street.

The worker was taken to Harborview Medical Center in serious condition.

Just before 3 p.m., fire officials said they were evaluating a second patient after a transformer blew at the substation. Medics said a 63-year-old man suffered 1st degree thermal burns.

City Light crews were working to restore power throughout the afternoon. Crews were rerouting power and expected service to be fully restored shortly after 3 p.m.

This is a developing story and will be updated.