Crews complete replacement of power poles burned by Monroe Canyon Fire in one day

RICHFIELD, Utah (ABC4) — Crews with Garkane Energy started work on replacing power poles that were burned by the Monroe Canyon Fire on Wednesday morning, and they announced that they have completed the repairs in one day.

The power company, which serves six counties in south-central Utah and two counties in Arizona, said there are 12 burned poles that need to be replaced. On Wednesday morning, Garkane Energy shut down the main transmission line, allowing for two teams to begin work on replacements.

At the same time, six generator crews began working at substations to help bring power back online for the affected area. Dan McClendon, CEO of Garkane Energy, told ABC4.com that they had four generators already, and they rented an additional two in order to provide power while repairs are being done. Those generators are diesel powered.

At 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Garkane Energy announced on social media that crews completed replacing the burned poles on the transmission line in a single day. They said that crews are wrapping up, and they are going to begin cutting the system back over to normal power beginning at 6 p.m.

Parts of the grid are going to come back online at different times as the crews bring the system back in stages. There will be a brief outage during the cutover, but once power is restored, everything will be back at full operation.

Earlier in the day, as repairs began, Garkane Energy said that with the switch to generator power, “there may be outages, blinks, and transitions throughout the day as we get everything up and running. We ask that you conserve and reduce your electricity usage as much as possible from Wednesday morning to Saturday morning.”

To help ease the loss of power, Garkane Energy said it would be powering communities in “a way we’ve never done before.” Garkane Energy said it would break each town into its own “separate islands of power,” running each town off a different generator.

“We are hopeful that that will work well for three or four days,” McClendon said. “We hope by Saturday or Sunday that we can have the permanent repairs made, and then we’ll be back in permanent business.”

Crews working on transmission lines in “what feels like a fire-blasted wasteland,” images courtesy of Garkane Energy

Garkane Energy crews said generators for Hanksville, Loa, and Torrey were up and running, and, as of Wednesday morning, crews are working to bring up the remaining generators.

However, as of around 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Garkane Energy announced that there had been a few issues with generators, and that Loa and Hanksville are currently without power.

They said that they’re working to get those systems back online, and they requested that anyone in both areas help crews by turning off air conditioners and any other large electrical loads. By turning off large electrical loads, it will reduce the startup load, which will make it faster and safer for crews to restore power.

McClendon said that Garkane Energy has a meter management system with excellent communication, and they’ve been sending updates to their customers three to four times a day, giving them updates on what to expect.

“They’ve been very grateful for that and very gracious,” McClendon said. “They’ve been very thankful on Facebook, but in a very difficult situation, my crews have been able to work hard 24-7.”

Before this, Garkane Energy said that the operation was going even better than expected, and that most customers were running on generator power. They continue to work to get everyone online as soon as possible, and crews have begun work on repairing the transmission line. First, they have to replace the damaged poles.

“Now, they’re currently working on and trying to, you know, dig those old ones out, put new ones in, and re-energize it,” McClendon said. “So, Garkane has had that damage, and we have limited, I believe, a lot larger damage with some of our maintenance activities.”

McClendon added that Garkane had wildfire plans in place for several years, in some cases before they were mandated by states. Even with those plans in place, he estimated that the damage from the fire and associated repairs will cost them $1 million to $2 million.

“Thank you again for your patience, your support, and your kindness to our crews,” Garkane Energy said. “They’re giving it everything they’ve got to get us back online as fast as possible. Stay safe, and keep an eye out for more updates throughout the day.”

The Monroe Canyon Fire has so far burned over 63,000 acres as of the latest update provided on Tuesday morning and remains only 13% contained.

Renisha Mall contributed to this report.