4 Pierce County utility substations vandalized, cutting power to more than 14K on Christmas – KIRO 7 News Seattle

Graham, Washington — More than 14,000 people in Pierce County celebrated Christmas in the dark.

Four substations were destroyed early Sunday morning, according to the Sheriff’s Department.

“When I woke up, the power was off,” said Thomas Morisada.

“We live right off 224th Street and we had a power outage. The same thing happened to them,” said Isiah Williams.

Safeway, at the corner of 224th and Meridian, was running on a spare generator.

“A lot of the lights are out and we don’t sell refrigerated or frozen items,” Morisada said.

Shortly before 5:30 a.m. Sunday, a robbery call was made to the Tacoma Public Works Substation on 46th Street in Graham, according to the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office.

“When agents arrived at the scene, there was no one on the scene, but they saw a fenced area breached. cut off one, climbed inside and damaged the substation,” the sergeant said. Darren Moss Jr., spokesperson for the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department.

Shortly after the sheriff’s department was notified, the 224th Street substation was also destroyed. Lawmakers called Puget Sound Energy, which also supplies power to the area, and confirmed that a power substation on 144th Street was also hit.

“All three of these incidents happened in the middle of the night and there was a power outage on Christmas Day. said Moss.

“If I had to talk to people like that, I’d be like, ‘Well, it’s Christmas. Why would you do that to someone?'” Morisada said.

So far, there are no suspicious leads, and people living near the three substations are asked to check their security cameras for suspicious activity between 2am and 6am.

A fourth power plant was attacked in Pierce County on Sunday night. A fire had broken out when the crew arrived at the scene around 7:30 pm.

The substation is located on the Kapowsin Highway near Graham and over 500 people were without power.

The cause was reported as vandalism.

Sergeant Moss says delegates monitor all substations.

If you have information, I recommend calling the Sheriff’s Department.

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