WAYNE COUNTY, Utah — After the Monroe Canyon Fire damaged multiple power poles providing electricity to communities in Wayne County, the power company undertook a major project Wednesday to permanently restore its infrastructure.
Kaber Esplin, a technology manager for Garkane Energy, said the fire destroyed part of their transmission line that provides power to their entire service area — causing "an unprecedented outage."
In an update Wednesday evening, Garkane said they had replaced all the poles that had been damaged.
Esplin said they made temporary repairs last week, but on Wednesday, their goal was to make those repairs permanent.
In order to do that, they had to de-energize the transmission lines. They placed six generators around the communities impacted — largely in Wayne County, just southeast of the 65,000-acre wildfire.
Now that the poles have been replaced, the company says it is switching off the generators and back to the main line source. They also said the power will be "better than before."
The company wrote in a Facebook post that there may be a brief interruption to service as they switch back from the generators to "normal power," but they expect smooth sailing after that.
