Here's why the power went out

One wire down
Photo by John Boril

As of 9pm Friday, power had yet to be restored for 424 customers in Shoreline and Lake Forest Park - down from 623 15 minutes before.

According to Seattle City Light, "An insulator on a transmission line broke. When it did, the line dropped onto distribution lines below. The energy surge popped breakers, fuses and switches."

Reader John Boril sent in a report about the cause of today's power outage.

It appears to have started in power lines at the corner of NE 180th and 8th Ave NE.

John says, "The first picture shows what appears to be the problem. You can see that all of the insulators on these poles have wires attached, except for one of them on the pole on the right. If you look down from that insulator, it appears that the wire which had been attached to it is now lying on the wires below, which probably caused a short when it fell onto them.

The downed line started a fire
Photo by John Boril

"Witnesses at the scene told me that sparked a fire on the lawn of the house on the southeast corner of NE 180th and 8th NE."

Shoreline Fire on the scene
Photo by John Boril

Shoreline Fire responded, put out the fire, and blocked the road.

Updated with statement from City Light 08-19-2016 10:15pm