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01/04/2008: "“Uninterruptible Power Supply" Interrupts Power Supply"

(Sheriff dispatch crew doing their job at emergency backup location)

Nothing like starting the year off with a bit of irony, and that is what happened when an “uninterruptible power supply” failure took the County -and the Sheriff- off line on Thursday morning. The good news, and there is some, due to proactive planning for an emergency, the County was able to race down to the Sheriff's backup emergency dispatch center at the fire station on Mullis Street, and was quickly back doing Sheriff and other emergency communications.

Dispatcher Tom Eades said that he opened the emergency operations dispatch center less than 5 minutes after the primary system went down, and Sheriff’s dispatch supervisor Robin DeLaZerda said it does not appear that any calls were missed. Dispatchers continued to work out of the emergency center until shortly after noon on Thursday.




The system that failed was a large “uninterruptible power supply” installed in the Sheriff’s office designed to protect electronic equipment against surges, and to provide backup power during a power failure, until the county’s emergency generator kicks in. When it failed, it began to smoke and fire fighters were called-in, however there was no indication of damage to any property or equipment besides the unit itself.

Most County communication and computer services had been restored by 9 a.m., according to County Information Manager George Johnson. Email service was restored at approximately 9:20 a.m.

Johnson says that parts required to repair the power supply have arrived in Seattle and technicians sent by the vendor will repair the unit over the weekend. On Friday morning, the dispatch center at the sheriff's office in the courthouse and all other county electronics systems were operating normally on alternative power sources.