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SALT LAKE CITY — 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.
The power went out the night of March 13 after an explosion in the breaker box. Bhanyar Janumonya, who owns Sonjhae Asian Market, said his store was shut down for four days and he's 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.
“At the beginning they say two to three days, now they say two to three weeks. I don’t know,” Janumonya said. “Frustrated, frustrated.”
"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. KSL reached out to him and was contacted back by his insurance agent Joe Callahan.
Callahan said the building has a 40-year-old power system that was at the end of its life. He said “the landlord has done everything” trying to fix the problem as quickly as possible.
He said the reason why it’s taking so long is because multiple players are getting involved and that it’s not a quick fix. The incident 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.”
