Power line sparks fire

Spokane homeowner Damien White roasted Avista Utilities for a power line fire Tuesday that burned his fence and landscaping even though the company was warned Sunday night that electric lines were arcing.

At least one line fell about 9:40 a.m. Tuesday, igniting a bush as well as White’s fence at 919 S. Pittsburg St. while he was at work.

“I came back to find a corner of my yard toasted,” he said. “If it would have landed anywhere near our house, it could have just torched our house, and we have animals inside. It’s a scary feeling.”

An Avista spokeswoman said four other neighbors also sustained property damage.

White said he reported the arcing Sunday night when wind whipped tree branches that had grown into the electric lines. A neighbor reported Monday night’s repeat performance, he said.

“It would sound like little firecrackers that are attached to a string,” White said Tuesday. “It was lighting up our whole back yard last night. It was just big blue sparks.”

Fire Department records show White reported the problem at 7:20 p.m. Sunday. He said he called 911 because Avista’s emergency telephone number – (800) 227-9187 – “went straight to some automated service, and it told me that I currently didn’t have a power outage at my house, and if I wanted to make a payment, press 1.”

Firefighters had better luck calling Avista and reported the problem to the company at 7:32 p.m. Sunday, according to a dispatch log. White said an Avista repairman came later in the evening, but worked in the wrong area and failed to fix the problem.

“I told the guy that was not where it was sparking from,” White said. “He just said, ‘Oh, it was sparking from back there?’ But he never checked it out.”

Avista spokeswoman Debbie Simock said the repairman fixed a downed “service” line to White’s house and reported the arcing problem that White pointed out. She said lack of access for his truck, darkness and the size of the job prevented the repairman from trimming the tree himself.

Simock said a tree-trimming crew that had been working on the South Hill was supposed to trim the tree Tuesday or today.

“It was unfortunate the fire occurred right before we were able to get there,” Simock said.

She said Avista accepts responsibility for the fire and has offered to pay damages to five homeowners. The fire damaged a shared fence and melted a shed roof, Simock said.

As for the company’s after-hours telephone line, Simock said, White should have been able to reach a representative by pressing “1.”

“We do have a rep available 24-7, 365,” Simock said. “You may have to wait a little bit if the customer service rep is on the line with another customer, but the system tells you how long a wait is expected.”

The Avista answering machine message instructs callers to “press 1 to report gas leaks, power outages or to hear information about current outages.”

The message says nothing about pressing 1 to report other emergencies, but “it would be difficult in an automated message to cover every possible scenario,” Simock said.

However, the message goes on to cover quite a number of possibilities: payment arrangements, paying your bill by phone, payment and energy assistance locations, natural gas availability and other construction matters, Web site and stock information and transferring to a particular extension.

Finally, for those who are still on the line, the machine automatically transfers callers to a person.