Fire In Breaker Box Damages Small Businesses In SLC
Mar 25, 2019, 6:21 PM
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – A small fire in a breaker box has caused thousands of dollars in damages to about a half a dozen businesses along a small strip mall in Salt Lake City. Those businesses are located at 1465 S. State Street.
“At the beginning they say two to three days, now they say two to three weeks. I don’t know,” said Bhanyar Janumonya who owns Sonjhae Asian Market. “Frustrated, frustrated.”
The power went out the night of March 13th after an explosion in the breaker box. Janumonya says as a result his store was shut down for four days. He says he had to throw away much of his refrigerated food.
“Four days cost a lot of money,” he said.
Janumonya and other businesses are using large generators as a power source until the issue can be fixed. Those generators are costing $600 a day plus gas to run them.
“Of course I’m frustrated we have to get back in business,” said Toshio Sekikawa who owns a Japanese Restaurant called Tosh Ramen. “We lost all the food. I throw away all the food in the restaurant.”
The owner of the building lives out of state and KSL reached out to him and was contacted back by his insurance agent, Joe Callahan.
Callahan said that the building has a 40 year old power system that was at the end of its life. He says “the landlord has done everything” trying to fix the problem as quickly as possible.
He says the reason why it’s taking so long is because multiple players are getting involved. He says it’s not a quick fix but has turned into a construction project that not only needs an electrical engineer but now the plans have to go through the city for approval which could take time.
“Just a frustrating process,” said Callahan. “At the mercy of insurance companies and the city to get involved.”
