Strong wind knocks out power, downs trees, starts fires

LYNNWOOD — Wind gusting to nearly 60 mph knocked down trees and power lines around Snohomish County and sparked at least two fires Thursday morning.

Lynnwood was hit particularly hard.

Heavy wind knocked down a tree that blocked 168th Street and 52nd Avenue Wednesday night. It took Lynnwood Fire Department crews hours to clear the road.

Then around 8:30 a.m. Thursday, a tall fir fell across 36th Avenue near Maple Street, causing house fires on both sides of the street from an underground power surge. Roads were closed in that area. The Snohomish County PUD was called to shut off power, and Puget Sound Energy to was called to shut off natural gas.

One fire was extinguished quickly. Firefighters had to wait for the natural gas line to be shut off before entering the second house where the basement was heavily damaged by fire.

One person was taken to the hospital for minor smoke inhalation, said Julie Moore, city spokesman.

Snohomish Fire District 1, which covers much of the southwest county, received 14 wind-related calls between midnight and 10:30 a.m. Thursday. Most were for downed and arcing power lines. In one case, a tree, broken power pole and downed power line blocked the road at 116th Street SW and 35th Ave W, east of Everett.

“We have one extra engine company on duty this morning to help out with the extra call volume related to the wind,” Fire District 1 spokeswoman Leslie Hynes said.

The PUD reported more than 25,000 customers lost service. Before 6 a.m., Lake Goodwin, Clearview and Camano Island were hard hit. Later in the morning there were scattered outages across the county, PUD spokesman Neil Neroutsos said.

By 1:30 p.m., roughly 14,000 customers were still without power.

The winds also brought some heavy rain. Everett recorded 1.2 inches of rain in 12 hours, city spokeswoman Meghan Pembroke reported.

Downed trees and power lines blocked 88th Street NE in Marysville. It was later reopened.

Weather-related problems caused Stanwood schools to delay opening for two hours.

Snohomish County was reporting roads closed due to power lines in trees along 116th Street SE near Everett, along Interurban Boulevard near Maltby and along Westwick Road in Snohomish.