Power Outage, Garage Fire Make For A Busy Afternoon For Everett Fire Department

A strong odor of smoke but no fire at Pacific Fabrics

A faulty switch on a power pole in South Everett and a garage fire in North Everett kept fire crews busy this afternoon. Around 3:30, Everett Fire crews were called to a fire in a detached garage in the 1300 block of Lombard in North Everett. On arrival the 1st engine saw smoke and fire in the attic of the garage and called in a full alarm. A few minutes later, a commercial fire alarm was called in at Pacific Fabrics near Evergreen Way and Everett Mall Way in South Everett. Crews from Fire District 1 and Mukilteo were dispatched to help south Everett stations with that call while north Everett crews made quick work of the garage fire on Lombard. No word yet on what sparked that fire. Back to Evergreen Way, while no fire was found in the Pacific Fabrics store, there was a heavy smell of electrical smoke, most likely from ballasts going bad, when the power went out. According to PUD spokesman Mike Thorne, a three-phase switch on a power pole partially failed causing power to go only halfway out in several businesses in the area between 4th avenue west, Evergreen Way and Everett Mall Way. The traffic lights in that area also went out. PUD crews found and replaced the faulty switch and things were back to normal around 4:45pm. [ad#Google Adsense]