‘SCARY’…Woman Causes 800 Utah Homes to Lose Power

According to ABC4, a woman who climbed up onto a power transformer and it cause 800 houses to lose power.

From ABC4: (link to full story)

"The incident, which took place near Gladiola Street and Decade Drive, led to authorities cutting power to more than 800 homes to prevent the woman from being electrocuted. According to the Salt Lake City Police Department, the alleged trespasser was taken into custody and transported to the hospital."

Evidently the woman was having a mental health problem and climbed up onto the tower and was yelling curse words at the cops.

Eventually the police were able to get her down but only after a control panel had been damaged which caused hundreds of homes to lose power.

"Dave Eskelsen, a representative of Rocky Mountain Power, confirmed with ABC4.com that a person went into a substation and began damaging a control panel shortly before 11 a.m. Eskelsen said system dispatchers quickly cut the power and police were able to take the person out of the substation.

Eskelsen said approximately 800 customers were without service from around 11 a.m. to shortly before 1 p.m. when it was restored." (link to full story)

Going up into a power substation like that is incredibly dangerous according to the Rocky Mountain Power official. It's amazing that the woman wasn't hurt. And everybody is hoping she gets help and that she's okay.

It was an awesome job by the police and others who were able to safely get her down in the cherry picker. Had to have been an extremely stressful situation.