Birds Cause Power Outage at Selah Substation

A widespread power outage in Selah that left more than 6,000 people without electricity Monday is being blamed on birds. Pacific Power said a power failure at the same substation three weeks ago was also caused by birds.

Two recent citywide power outages three weeks apart have some business owners frustrated.

Pacific Power Spokesperson Bill Clemens says, "There is bird protection within the substation. But we have never had this particular problem."

Clemons said the birds penetrated the weaknesses in Pacific Power's safeguards twice.

"We are definitely evaluating how this happening and what we can do to prevent it in the future," Clemens said. "It has been like 40 years that we have not had a bird problem in this substation." Pacific Power officials say the substation that has been affected is inspected monthly.