TACOMA, Wash. (AP) – A fourth electrical substation was vandalized late Christmas Day in Washington state, temporarily knocking out power to the homes of Kapowsin and Graham, according to the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office.
As of 7 a.m. Monday, more than 10,500 Puget Sound Energy customers were without power across the region, KOMO-TV reported.
The suspects broke into a fenced area and vandalized equipment, starting a fire, officials said. The fire was extinguished and power was later restored, but no suspects are in custody, officials said.
The attacks come as federal officials warn that the US power grid needs better security to prevent domestic terrorism and after a major outage in North Carolina earlier this month that took days to repair.
Ken Lambert/The Seattle Times via AP
The first substation was vandalized around 5:30 a.m. Sunday, followed by a second substation, according to Tacoma Public Utilities. Outages affected about 7,300 customers in an area southeast of Tacoma. Just before noon, the utility restored power to all but 2,700 customers whose power was due around 6:30 p.m. Sunday.
Meanwhile, just before noon, Puget Sound Energy reported that an act of vandalism that occurred around 2:30 a.m. caused a power outage at one of its substations. The nearly 7,700 customers who lost power were restored by 5 a.m., Puget Sound spokesman Andrew Padula said. The company is investigating, along with authorities, and declined to comment further, according to Padula.
In all four cases, the sheriff’s office says someone forced their way into the fenced area around the substations and damaged the equipment, causing a power outage.
Power plants have been hit in Washington and Oregon in the past month.
Portland General Electric, Bonneville Power Administration, Cowlitz County Public Utility District and Puget Sound Energy have confirmed six separate attacks on power substations in Washington and Oregon in the previous weeks, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting and Seattle’s KUOW-FM.
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