Seattle City Light has confirmed that a racoon was responsible for the wide-spread power outage in Ballard, Fremont and Wallingford early this morning.
The raccoon reportedly wandered into the substation at 8th Ave NW and Leary Way at about 2:30 a.m. and climbed onto an electric bus (a large power strip that is a connecting point for main feeder lines).
SCL Spokesman Scott Thomson confirmed that, unfortunately, the raccoon’s body short-circuted the bus which caused an electrical explosion. Ten feeder lines failed which caused a power outage both in our neighborhood and in surrounding Fremont and Wallingford.
SCL crews went to work immediately on the situation and were able to restore power by 5 a.m.
According to Thomson, sadly, the charred remains of a raccoon were found at the electrical bus and the above photo taken by local resident Jeff Pierce was likely another member of the departed raccoon’s family.
“I heard a loud explosion and just came here to see what happened,” local resident Jeff Pierce told KING 5 News. “You wouldn’t think such a small raccoon could cause so much trouble.”
Photo courtesy of KING 5 News.
