Another Big Outage Hits Downtown -- Fire Blacks Out 65-Block Area; Lotto Computers Also Shut Down

A major section of downtown Seattle yesterday suffered its second major power outage in less than two years, after an exploding electrical device set fire to a transformer vault in an office building.

The outage, lasting three hours and 18 minutes, closed most businesses in the 65-block area west of the Westlake Mall, including The Bon Marche and dozens of other stores. The outage also shut down about 40 percent of the Washington state lottery machines, from Seattle north to the Canadian border.

The area affected by the outage was bordered roughly from Western to Westlake avenues and Pine to Battery streets. No one was reported injured, as police parking attendants and reserves directed traffic because street lights were out.

The fire erupted shortly after 11 a.m. in the basement transformer vault in the Olympic Tower building at 217 Pine St.

Firefighters found that as they tried to put out the blaze, power was still surging through the lines, and sparks and arcing electricity restarted the fire, Deputy Fire Chief Paul Hargrove said.

To solve that problem and to protect the rest of the power system, the entire electrical network in that portion of downtown Seattle had to be shut down, including backup circuits, City Light spokesman Hugh McIntosh said.

Seattle City Light Superintendent Randy Hardy said the power normally surging through the vault is 31 megawatts, equivalent to three times the amount of electricity used by the 76-story Columbia Center.

After it was decided to shut down the electrical network, it took more than a half-hour to finish switching off the power.

The blackout began at 12:17 p.m., according to Hugh McIntosh, City Light spokesman. Hargrove said the fire was out at 1:20 p.m., but the 8- by 12-foot vault had to be ventilated and cooled before City Light crews could enter to begin repairs and investigate the outage.

When the power was switched back on at 3:35 p.m. and held, Hardy gave a sigh of relief. It meant that the major cables in the vaults were undamaged. Repairing the cables would have extended the outage 12 more hours, he said.

Although it generally affected the same area, yesterday's blackout was caused by a totally different problem from the underground fire on Labor Day 1988 that left the area without power for three days and seven hours, said Jerry Garman, assistant City Light superintendent.

McIntosh noted that the area affected by the 1988 outage was 50 blocks, while yesterday's outage was about 65 blocks. The grid is slightly different in size this time, and 65 blocks is just an estimate that McIntosh made, using a map.

The 1988 blackout occurred after workers using a steel pipe in sidewalk construction hit City Light power cables under Virginia Street between Third and Fourth avenues. A short circuit caused a massive blaze in a nearby vault that destroyed six city light lines. City Light officials believe Metro Transit power lines aggravated the fire, although Metro Transit officials still dispute that contention.

Yesterday's fire was caused by an explosion in an electrical device; a circuit breaker that is ironically designed to prevent such problems, said Garman, who is the man directly responsible for the city's power supply.

Garman said he doesn't know yet why it happened, but a massive circuit breaker known as a secondary network protector faulted and blew up. The heat from the fire was intense.

Garman said the explosion is puzzling because network protectors are ``very tough, designed to be almost foolproof.'' He said nothing similar has happened in the 25 years that he has been with City Light.

Herb Bridge, a downtown jeweler who is former chairman of the Seattle Downtown Association, said merchants in the area are concerned about the repeated outages in the same area of downtown; even if they involved different causes. Bridge said the power system needs some sort of backup to protect businesses from monetary losses.

``This is very disruptive to business. It really is. And it costs a lot of money,'' said Bridge, who lives and works downtown.

Garman said the fact that yesterday's blackout occurred in the same power grid downtown as the 1988 outage was ``absolute luck of the draw. That's deja vu working full time. It could have been anywhere. Frankly, if I had a network to go down, I would have preferred it not to be the same one we had go down in 1988.''

Ironically, the power grids downtown are better protected against outages than any other systems in the city, except the hospital district, which is equally protected, Garman said. The downtown grid must be better protected than residential areas, because outages cause serious safety problems in tall buildings and because many power lines downtown are underground where they are difficult to fix.

So when storms come, residential areas often suffer outages, but downtown rarely does, Garman said.

But a well-protected system like the one downtown has its drawbacks, Garman said. Once there is an outage, it takes longer to get the system back on line.

Garman said there are backups downtown, and further backups - as Bridge suggested - would be very expensive. Chances are there won't be more problems.

``On a statistical basis it would be substantially less than a 1 percent chance of happening again,'' Garman said. ``But that doesn't mean it won't happen tomorrow. I don't make no promises. I'm not God.''

The 1988 outage cost businesses millions of dollars. There is no estimate of the losses in yesterday's blackout.

Yesterday's outage left The Bon Marche and Westlake Center locked up, but just across the street, Frederick & Nelson and Nordstrom stores were unaffected.

Bee Peterson of Seattle was disappointed. Finding The Bon Marche locked, she said, ``I'm going to call a friend and tell her to forget lunch. It's closed.''

Although all his neighbors closed, Dave Powers, manager of Winchell's Donut House on Third Avenue, did a booming business. He moved a table of donuts to the front door and sold them to customers walking by.

The Seattle Fire Department reported that fire alarms went off in 10 businesses as a result of the power outage. There were no problems at those businesses, but the alarms required the fire department to dispatch crews.

The fire department also sent six companies to buildings throughout the area to make sure people were not caught in elevators or experiencing other problems.

At the Josephinum, a residential hotel mainly for senior citizens, the 135 residents bided their time in a central area, with one of the residents entertaining by piano. A few residents had to be helped down the stairs when the elevators quit but otherwise there was no problem, said Kevin Patz, a security clerk.

When power was restored, some of the major users, such as the Westin Hotel, had to be reduced to half power to prevent surges. Those buildings would be phased to full power over about two hours, Hardy said.

Only limited power could be supplied the Olympic Tower, where the fire occurred. The tower is an office building that provides space for 10 companies and 200 employees. Few were in the building on a Saturday.

It was uncertain how long it would take to provide it with full power.

A couple of businesses kept operating, using the daylight that was available.

Westminster Lace, which sells apparel and home accessories, did well. ``People are buying more,'' said Erin Hamack, assistant manager. She said a lot of people had come from out of town, some from Vancouver, B.C., to shop.

The Sharper Image, a shop that specializes in electronics, also stayed open. ``We're armed with the latest and newest flashlights,'' quipped Al Riedman, manager of the store.

But the outage stalled use of its computerized cash register, which involves a sophisticated inventory accounting. ``We still carry No. 2 pencils, and they work with or without batteries,'' Riedman added.