UPDATE: Electrical fire at house on 31st SW in Arbor Heights

| Arbor Heights | West Seattle fires | West Seattle news

(WSB photos)
4:40 AM: Big Seattle Fire response on the way to a possible house fire in the ~~3100 block of SW 103rd~~. More to come.

4:46 AM UPDATE: The first crews on scene are reporting this to be an attic/vent fire. They say the person who was home got out OK. Some of the units that were dispatched are being canceled.

4:55 AM UPDATE: Our crew on the scene reports “obvious smoke” and firefighters ventilating the roof.

5:02 AM UPDATE: Our crew says this is believed to be an electrical fire. No injuries reported. Not major. We’ll continue monitoring via scanner as they move on to another West Seattle fire.

5:04 AM UPDATE: The address of this fire has been updated to the 10200 block of 31st SW (updated map here). No injuries reported.

5:27 AM UPDATE: Talking to a supervisor at the aforementioned other (unrelated but almost concurrent) fire scene, we got confirmation this was a wiring fire – (added) apparently the old power meter overheated.

alkii resident June 7, 2015 (4:49 am)

I hope everyone got out. Cant believe another Arbor Heights house fire.

WSB June 7, 2015 (5:02 am)

This is an electrical fire. No injuries. But we have to move on now to ANOTHER call on Avalon. Re: coverage – because of where we are atop a hill in Upper Fauntleroy, couldn’t miss the sirens, woke us both up.

Chris June 7, 2015 (4:52 am)

Wow, WSB, way to be on top of it! The sirens woke me up and like a trained monkey came to the blog. Didn ‘t expect to see anything this early but never under estimate the blog.
Great no one appears to be hurt. Back to sleep.

furiouskitty June 7, 2015 (5:27 am)

Dog started howling. Thanks for the prompt reporting!

Bill June 7, 2015 (9:29 pm)

Some more information re “old power meter overheated” may be helpful —
How old was the meter?

Isn’t the power meter City Light’s responsibility?

What usage circumstances at 4:30 in the am would make a meter overheat?

WSB June 7, 2015 (9:31 pm)

The final information from SFD is not available yet. Won’t be until tomorrow; we’ll be asking SFD’s PIO in the morning about both this and the Avalon fire.

ChefJoe June 7, 2015 (9:53 pm)

Bill, older power meters typically have the glass globe plug into the “socket” with 4 blades and, aside from something loosening the globe, I’m not sure what would cause overheating in that aspect, but the 1960s homestead I’m in also had pretty minimal grounding requirements of the panel (the panel ground went back to the mast and back to the telephone/power pole with a water bond added much later) and the ground wire was rather thin. I recently had the old Zinsco (fire hazard design and high % of no-trip on breakers) panel replaced and had to add additional ground rods and upgrade service wires and Zinsco was very, very popular in the area.
.
Panel issues might be more of a culprit than the meter.

Journeyman Electrician June 8, 2015 (6:08 pm)

“Apparently the old power meter overheated”

Meters don’t overheat. The meter base can overheat if there is too much load on it, but the meter is just a recording device.

What more typically happens is that one of the 110v “legs” burns up, which means half your lights and plugs won’t work, and stuff like electric stoves and dryers won’t work. If that happens, you want to call an electrician or City Light immediately. They may cut your powers till its fixed, but it’s better than the alternative.

The meter base belongs to the customer. The meter belongs to the utility.

WSB June 8, 2015 (6:11 pm)

Thanks; the SFD PIO was out today so I still haven’t been able to access the final ruling on this one. Hoping to tomorrow.

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