TOPPENISH, Wash.- Power companies will turn off power temporarily to mitigate harm to first responders during fire season.
Sunday May 12. 5,800 Pacific Power Customers experienced an outage.
The outage was in response to an ongoing wildfire. Pacific power opted to temporarily shut off power for Toppenish residents to ensure the safety of the first responders.
According to Pacific Power, during times of extreme fire danger the sensitivity is turned up on the devices that detect damage to any power poles.
‘If the fire risk is elevated we have our equipment set on more sensitive settings. And those settings will trip within a fraction of a second if there’s interference detected. Something like a branch the lines. ” said Simon Gutierrez, a Spokesperson for Pacific Power.
Gutierrez says that while there are not planned outages this summer customers should be prepared.
Having an emergency kit with supplies to last several days. And potentially a back-up power system like a generator.
