In Kingston, the power's back on — and so is school

Sorry, kids. The power’s on, and so is school.

Puget Sound Energy cut power to several lines in Kingston Monday morning so North Kitsap Fire & Rescue could extinguish a brush fire caused by a downed power line, at Miller Bay and West Kingston roads.

The outage occurred at 7:33 a.m., and affected 860 commercial and residential customers, Puget Sound Energy spokeswoman Allison Stanford said.

Power was out at Kingston High School, Kingston Middle School, Gordon Elementary, Spectrum, and Transportation Services. Students at Kingston High School were held in their first-period classes until power could be restored, the school reported.

Power was restored to most of the area by 9:30 a.m. At that time, 60 customers were still without power, Stanford said.

“To the best of our knowledge, we can’t say why the power line came down,” said North Kitsap Fire spokeswoman Michele Laboda, adding that she had no report that it was caused by a vehicle crash. “We’re just very grateful that bystanders didn’t attempt to extinguish the fire. Roadside brush fires have the potential to involve power lines. The best thing to do is call 911 and let us assess the situation safely. And that’s what these bystanders did.”

The nearest home was about 100 yards away. “We’re grateful for that,” Laboda said. “Due to the energized power line, we couldn’t put the fire out until after the power line was shut down.”

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