Quick Facts:
- Claims against city of Seattle after Feb. 17 power surge
- Lights flickered for 3,461 customers; 87 had outages
- 69 claims for damages filed so far
- Follow this link to file a claim
Dozens of Seattle City Light customers may be eligible to be reimbursed for damages caused by a massive power surge that happened in the Ballard, Greenwood and Phinney Ridge neighborhoods.
A city report states, "On Tuesday, February 17, 2015, at approximately 1:45 pm, a ceramic power line insulator located in the Phinney/Greenwood neighborhood experienced a mechanical failure. This failure led to a series of events that resulted in disruption to service as well as electrical damage to personal property."
A Seattle City Light spokesperson said that one high voltage power line broke and dropped on another line and created the surge.
The surge caused power to flicker for 3,461 customers and outages for 87 customers. The longest outage lasted for about 4 hours.
"I was in my dining room and i heard a large sound and I heard a bunch of breakers popping," said Scott Steinhorst, who lives in Ballard.
He credits his surge protection system for protecting all of his electronics.
However, an electrical outlet blew out from the surge.
Mike Buis is an electrician who is repairing at least 4 of the homes impacted by the surge.
"What happens if you lose the neutral the electricity has nowhere to go so it spreads through the house and goes through every device? So it can blow out TVs anything that has electronics," Buis said.
Seattle City Light said that so far 69 people have filed claims for damages.
Many people we spoke to didn't know that the city's equipment failure was responsible for the damage.
"I’m surprised frankly I would think if they had an error a problem that could have caused damage they would have that we should have been notified," Steinhorst said.
Seattle City Light said that it will not reach out to people to ask them to file claims. The city also said that it is not acknowledging Seattle City Light is at fault for the equipment failure.
Instead if customers call the city or Seattle City Light then they will be directed to the right department.
A spokesperson for the Seattle Department of Finance and Administrative Services said that usually the city is not responsible for damages caused by surges.
However in this case, a Seattle City Light spokesperson said that given the nature of the equipment failure, the city felt it would be better to resolve claims with customers now compared to fighting about them in court -- which could be more expensive for the city.
Seattle City Light is still investigating what caused the equipment failure in the first place.
Follow this link to file a claim.
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