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."
Esplin said they made temporary repairs last week, but on Wednesday, they had a plan in place to make those repairs permanent.
In order to do that, they would have to de-energize the transmission lines. In order to prevent power outages to residents during this time, they placed six generators around the communities impacted — largely in Wayne County, just southeast of the 65,000-acre wildfire.
"We’re working hard to bring up the remaining generators across the system. We may not be able to update every single step in real time, but crews are moving as quickly and safely as possible to restore power area by area," Garkane Energy wrote in a Facebook post. "Thank you again for your patience, your support, and your kindness to our crews. They’re giving it everything they’ve got to get us back online as fast as possible."
