City Light crews starting to trim branches around power lines

Photo by John Boril

Story and photos by John Boril

A crew from Seattle City Light contractor Kemp West was out along NE Serpentine Place on Tuesday, April 4, 2023 trimming limbs above and around our power lines. 

This past winter, falling limbs caused a 48-hour power outage in this neighborhood, during some of the coldest days of the year. 

Photo by John Boril

According to City Light’s website, the utility trims trees on a four and a half year pruning cycle. 

In addition to outages, City Light says trees touching power lines can also start fires, burn or electrocute people touching the tree, and cause voltage loss in the system.