Large equipment crashes into cable, leaving 5,000 out of power on South Hill for afternoon

An equipment failure and car accident caused about 5,000 households on the South Hill and 18,000 Avista households overall to lose power Thursday, according to Avista.

Around noon, large equipment came into contact with Avista’s transmission line, causing two substations on the South Hill to go dark, said David Vowels, Communications Manager for Avista, in an email Thursday.

The Avista power outage map called the cause of the outage a “car accident.”

By 2 p.m., power had returned, the website said. Avista was able to reroute power to restore service, Vowels said. As of 4 p.m., Avista crews were on location making repairs to the damaged equipment, he said.

According to the Inland Power outage map, no customers on the South Hill were reported out of power as of 1 p.m. Thursday.

Vowels said Avista could not provide further detail as of Thursday afternoon.