Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
City left without power for over 10 hours on chilly day
This substation regulator was burnt toast after a fire ignited and caused the regulator to explode. The fire caused Davenport to lose power for over 10 hours Sunday, Jan. 2.
DAVENPORT-Hundreds of people in the area were sleeping in, heading to church or enjoying their morning breakfast and coffee when a substation regulator at the Avista transformer on Third Street caught fire around 8 a.m. Sunday, Jan. 2.
Suddenly, over 1,700 customers were without power on a chilly winter day. The outage would last over 10 hours before hard-working Avista crews finally restored power to the city by 6:30 p.m.
Crews from Fire District No. 5 and Avista were deployed to the scene, but didn't enter the chain link fence area as the substation continued to light up due to safety concerns, district chief Craig Sweet said.
"We tried to put it out with a couple fire extinguishers, but it kept re-igniting," Sweet said.
The main blast, as caught on Earnie Bartley's security cameras down the road, was over in a brief 10 seconds. Bartley said crews were on scene within two minutes.
Local firefighters monitored the area until around 9:30 a.m. An Avista crew was then deployed from Spokane. That crew worked all day until power was finally restored.
The outage took out the entire city limits of Davenport, as well as hundreds of customers east down Highway 2 toward Mondovi. Wilbur also momentarily lost power, but it came back in a couple hours.
The outage forced locals to find creative ways to stay warm on a cold day with temperatures that didn't top 12 degrees, according to National Weather Service data.
Brian and Paula Furman bundled up with blankets since they don't have a fireplace. Eventually, they called it and headed to Airway Heights for dinner.
"It got cold after a while," Brian Furman said. "But the power was back on when we got back."
Eric and Bethany Orvis lit a fire in the gas fireplace, turned on lanterns and began to play board games with their children. "At first, they were like, 'what do we do now?'" Eric Orvis said.
They were able to cook on their gas stove, and Bethany Orvis only escaped once to get coffee in Reardan with her mother-in-law.
Lance and Jessica Strite came home from church to the outage, so they built a fire and piled themselves and seven children into the living room.
"We played games and read books," Lance Strite said.
"We also cooked quesadillas over the fire," Jessica Strite added. "We put a tarp up in the living room to trap the heat in."
Crews restored power steadily, as different sections of the city came back on throughout the late afternoon and early evening Sunday. The southwest side of town by Fitness Lane was the last to be restored.
Drew Lawson is the editor of the Davenport Times. He is a graduate of Eastern Washington University.
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