Thousands in north and central Tacoma impacted by power outage

TACOMA, Wash. — On Sunday morning, thousands of Tacoma Public Utilities customers woke up to find their power was out.

The outage hit the north and central areas of the city, affecting 9,900 customers.

According to a Facebook post from the utilities, the outage was caused by a power pole fire that affected a transmission line.

Firefighters were called to put out the fire in the area of South 11th and South Proctor streets after utility crews isolated the transmission line.

At 1 p.m., a crew was working to restore power, and at that time 5,300 people were without power.

The utilities reported that by 2 p.m. they had made progress in the restoration efforts, and only 3,350 customers were still without power.

Fifteen minutes later, the utilities said power crews were working as quickly and safely as possible, and only 1,250 still had no power.

Tacoma Public Utilities gave another update at 2:35 p.m., when only 250 customers remained without power.

The outage also forced the cancellation of a Tacoma Rainiers game. It was moved to Monday and will be a doubleheader.

A release the Rainiers sent out stated:

“Due to a city-wide power outage in Tacoma, Sunday’s originally scheduled 1:35 p.m. game against Sacramento has been postponed to Monday at Cheney Stadium.

“With uncertainty of ongoing access to power, Sunday’s game will be made up as part of a single-admission doubleheader on Monday, September 13, beginning at the originally scheduled time of 12:05 p.m. (two seven-inning games, roughly 30 minutes between games). Tickets to Sunday’s game may be exchanged for Monday’s doubleheader, or any remaining Rainiers game during the 2021 season. Exchanges may be made in person at the Cheney Stadium ticket office.”

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