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Power Restored After Fire at Broad Street Substation

Power has been restored to about 325 customers, including the Seattle Center, the Space Needle, Experience Music Project and the Monorail, that were affected by an outage caused when a fire broke out in Seattle City Light’s Broad Street Substation at 319 6th Ave. N.
Photo of damaged capacitor bank.

A fire at the Broad Street Substation damaged the capacitor bank on the right.

Power has been restored to about 325 customers, including the Seattle Center, the Space Needle, Experience Music Project and the Monorail, that were affected by an outage caused when a fire broke out in Seattle City Light’s Broad Street Substation at 319 6th Ave. N.

The fire occurred at 10:16 a.m. The Seattle Fire Department was quickly on scene to put it out. No one was injured. The oil within the capacitor bank is a non-toxic mineral oil used for insulation.

Power was restored by noon. Repair crews determined the fire began in a capacitor bank, which is a device that regulates the quality of electricity flow.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

Seattle City Light is the 10th largest public electric utility in the United States. It has some of the lowest cost customer rates of any urban utility, providing reliable, renewable and environmentally responsible power to about 750,000 Seattle area residents. City Light has been greenhouse gas neutral since 2005, the first electric utility in the nation to achieve that distinction.