McCall Idaho Headline News

For the third time in five weeks, the Riordan Fire in the Cascade Complex has taken out the power line that serves residents in Yellow Pine, an Idaho Power Co. news release said.

On Sept. 12, the fire burned three structures, and on Saturday four more structures were destroyed when a large tree fell into them.

Forest Service fire managers said fire danger was too great over the weekend and wouldn't allow Idaho Power personnel in to assess damage until Monday.

All seven of the structures are two-pole H-frame structures on the line that comes from the substation in Warm Lake to serve customers in Yellow Pine. They are located in the vicinity of the Ice Hole Campground about five miles south of Yellow Pine.

"Unfortunately, there is still potential to lose more structures on the single-pole section the last few miles into Yellow Pine," Regional Manager Keith Kolar said.

"We certainly empathize with our customers in this area; the power has been off and on; our crews have been in and out of this hazardous area; firefighters are working in tough
conditions," Kolar said. "It's been a challenging fire season for many of us up here."

Kolar said tree crews began removing hazard trees early in the week. An Idaho Power road crew began reclaiming old roads to access the structure sites, and two line construction crews moved their equipment into the area to replace the three structures burned last week.

Two more crews will join the effort today, hoping to have access by then to replace the other four structures.

Crews expect to have the line back in service by Friday. For the following three to four days, power will be on at night, but off during the day so crews can continue with repair work.

"We're hoping this initial schedule will allow customers to run freezers and refrigerators during the night," Kolar said. "The day-time outages allow our crews to work safely and uninterrupted on the line, getting permanent power restored as quickly as possible."