As reported in the Seattle Times, on Thanksgiving Queen Anne’s Lisa McKibbin lost her beloved dog Sammy as a result of “contact voltage” when a streetlight emitted an unsafe level of electrical voltage. You can read the entire story here.
Last week, the Seattle PI’s Vanessa Ho reported that the sixth dangerous electrical cover was found at 85th & Greenwood, not so far from Wallingford. Now we hear that City Light will inspect all 20,000 light poles & 10,000 covers next year. (Thank you!)
But what if there’s a dangerous light in Wallingford right now? What can we do?
City Light says to look for the following:
- A metal streetlight that’s on during the day
- A metal streetlight that flickers at night
- A dog that shies away from a metal streetlight pole or metal cover
City Light’s Director of Communications and Public Affairs, Suzanne Hartman, adds the following:
…Two contactors will be brought on board starting December 27th to help the utility with its testing and inspection. City Light crews will team with the testing crews to either do on-the-spot repairs or de-energize the equipment. It’s anticipated that the inspections will take six to eight weeks to complete.
The public can help by reporting any metal streelights that remain on during the day or have a streetlamp that flickers during the night. Also, a dog can be a good detector of trouble. If a dog appears wary of a metal pole or metal groundcover, customers should report it to the utility by including the number on the pole and the exact location of the pole and groundcover. The number to call is (206) 684-7056. City Light is up-dating its website whenever there is new information on the testing and inspection effort. That information is located at www.seattle.gov/light as well as on the utility’s blog: http://powerlines.seattle.gov/
Seriously, City Light will listen to your dog. My cats are utterly apoplectic about this.
Stay safe, everyone!
Thanks for this post, Chris! Give the cats Seasons Greetings from Scout!
Ha ha ha! They’re hissing in response. Bad dog! (Actually, they haven’t seemed to mind dogs terribly much, though their exposure is limited.)
So do we even *have* any “metal streetlights” in the ‘hood? Maybe on 45th, but not down on the side streets, right?
I was going to say all the lights that got converted to LED recently (all? most? streetlights here in Wallingfaux, as we like to call East Wallingford, anyway) were probably checked out by the light crews and are probably skookum, no?
– rob
Hi, Rob. The only ones I can think of are on 45th, but I haven’t walked the entire neighborhood yet so I can’t be sure. And whether those were converted is beyond my powers of observation. Anyone else?
If there were an electrified pole in Wallingford, the odds are that it already would have killed Burks while he was trying to clean it.
Oh Shimo, why didn’t I think of that? Merry Christmas!