Blown fuse left nearly 6,000 without power early today

Nearly 6,000 Avista Utilities customers were without power this morning when fuses blew at a substation near Francis Avenue and Cedar Street on the North Side of Spokane. Anna Scarlett, an Avista spokeswoman, said fuses were replaced shortly after the 5:13 a.m. outage. About half of the services were restored by 6 a.m. The rest of the customers were back on line by 6:42 a.m., Scarlett said. The cause of the damage was not determined, although Avista workers suspect an animal may have triggered the outage.