SEATTLE - After at least two incidents involving faulty wires on light poles, one which caused the death of of a dog on Queen Anne Hill, Seattle City Light is changing the way light poles are inspected and adding more inspections across the city.
Effective January 1st, SCL will begin updating the grounding standards for all 20,000 metal light poles in Seattle. It will also test all those poles for stray voltage. The agency will additionally assume all responsibilities for inspection all of the city's 84,000 light poles. The Seattle Department of Transportation is currently responsible for that. SCL also plans to make sure all street lights adhere to the same grounding standards.
On Thanksgiving Day a dog stepped on a cover plate on a Queen Anne sidewalk and was fatally shocked. That plate had come in contact with a frayed wire which was not grounded. A second incident happened this week in West Seattle. That dog did not receive a shock, but acted strangely around the light pole, prompting the dog's owner to call it in. SCL says that pole had the same problem as the one on Queen Anne.
SCL will be inspecting all of the metal street light poles in the Rainier Vista, Holly Park and Greenbridge housing developments over the next few weeks. The agency says every light police in the city is touched and tagged overy year by workers conducting inventory reviews.
Seattle residents worried about street lights in their neighborhood can call Seattle City Light at (206) 684-7056.
