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Vashon residents press King County to address wildfire risk by undergrounding lines
Summary
Presenters told the council that Puget Sound Energy identified much of southern Vashon–Maury as high wildfire‑risk and warned that planned safety shutoffs could leave residents without water and cooling; the council asked King County to advocate for undergrounding or protective measures.
The council discussed wildfire risk and the role of the electric grid in creating both fire risk and resilience problems for island residents.
"Puget Sound Energy has identified a program to shut off our power because of the concern that we could cause a wildfire," Kevin Jones (speaker 10) said, adding that areas of Vashon and Maury Island are at the top of PSE's wildfire‑risk map. He warned that planned shutoffs could mean "you lose most people on Vashon will lose their water, lose your cooling," a key concern for residents relying on electrically powered pumps and medical equipment.
Speakers recommended that King County advocate for expedited undergrounding or other mitigation measures (tree wire, targeted undergrounding) and link undergrounding work to resilience planning such as local virtual power plants, community batteries, and solar + storage to maintain critical services during outages. The council included this recommendation in the final package it sent to King County.
