Sparking, flashing power lines caught on camera falling onto traffic on I-5 in Bellingham

BELLINGHAM, Wash. — Puget Sound Energy is investigating an equipment failure in Bellingham, after live power lines fell onto a pedestrian overpass and I-5 below on Wednesday, sending bright flashes and sparks onto the roadway just south of the Sunset Drive exit.

PSE said 5180 homes were in the dark for about an hour after the incident, which forced the Washington State Patrol to close all lanes.

Doug Lafferty's dash-cam was recording while he noticed the first sign of trouble northbound on I-5 at about 7:40 p.m. He said 
first he saw a little flash, followed by a big flash.

"I see a flash up in the sky and I'm sitting there saying ‘I don't remember a call for lightning,"' he said. "That's when I saw the other ones. I'm going ‘holy..."' Lafferty pulled over and called 911, after seeing drivers rolling over the power lines, and others backing up. "You could see some more (sparks) dripping off further over to the side," he said. "Something was hot. It was dripping like it was liquid.''

Puget Sound Energy confirmed to KIRO-7 the blinding flash was made by power lines falling onto the pedestrian bridge then arcing on the roadway below, but their engineers still don't know why the power lines fell. There was no wind, and none of the poles appeared to be tipped or moved. A deactivated power line still appeared to be on the ground behind the foot bridge.

"I had to call 911 to tell them, ‘Hey you've got a power line down on the freeway. People are still driving through it. Chaos over there. You got people backing up on the shoulder,"' Lafferty said.

"It's a blessing there were no people on the bridge, and it's a blessing that nobody got injured driving underneath it."

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