Equipment failure at Ephrata substation sparks fire, power loss to 8,000 in Grant County
Equipment failure at a power substation in Ephrata Wednesday evening cut power to about 8,000 Grant County Public Utility District customers.
An arc flash sparked a fire at an adjacent building used as a shop by the utility district, causing substantial damage, said Thomas Stredwick, district spokesman.
Power was lost in Ephrata, Quincy and Soap Lake. Electricity to Quincy and Soap Lake was restored about 2:30 a.m. Thursday. Full power was restored in Ephrata around 1 p.m. The utility kept customers updated with a steady stream of Facebook posts during the outage.
“Thanks everyone for your patience, understanding and kind words of encouragement to our workers,” they wrote Thursday afternoon.
The city of Ephrata is asking citizens who have water or sewer emergencies to contact Ephrata City Hall at 754-4601.
Grant County Public Utility District is the sole provider of electricity in Grant County and serves 47,000 electric customers.