A transformer explosion Thursday evening left more than 1,100 Avista customers without power across a stretch of North Lewiston, prompting a police response to manage traffic at darkened intersections throughout the affected area.
The outage spread across neighborhoods running from 21st and Main streets toward 12th Avenue. Utility crews initially projected power would be back online by 11:30 p.m., but managed to restore service roughly an hour ahead of schedule, around 10:30 p.m.
Officers Direct Traffic as Signals Go Dark
During the roughly 30-minute window when traffic signals were down, Lewiston police officers took positions at several high-traffic intersections to keep vehicles moving safely. Drivers were otherwise left to treat the darkened signals as four-way stops. Officers may have also been responding to unrelated calls during the same period, according to authorities. Once power was fully restored, traffic returned to normal and police cleared the scene.
No injuries or additional infrastructure damage were reported in connection with the incident. This marks another power disruption for the Lewiston area in recent weeks — a prior outage also affecting more than 1,100 customers was reported on a Thursday evening, underscoring ongoing concerns about grid reliability in parts of the city. Separately, Lewiston first responders have dealt with a series of emergency situations this season, including a structure fire that left a local building a total loss.
What Comes Next
Avista has not publicly released details on the specific cause of the transformer failure or announced any plans for infrastructure upgrades in the affected corridor. Residents in North Lewiston are encouraged to monitor Avista’s outage map and alert systems for future service disruptions. Lewiston police have not indicated any changes to standard traffic management protocols related to the event.