Outage Map
Central Electric Cooperative (CEC) Lineworker Zach Irzyk watched an ominous, growing cloud of smoke rise in the distance from the co-op’s utility yard on a late Friday afternoon in August. On call for the weekend, the third-generation lineworker knew what it might mean.
“I figured it was the calm before the storm, so I stocked up my truck,” he says, before spending the next 2 days continually balancing fire-related efforts with member outages.
The massive smoke column originated from the Flat Fire, which had ignited the previous day, Thursday, Aug. 21, 7 miles west of Culver. It was a typical high-desert summer day, absent the forecasted high winds.
The cooperative was already experiencing a busy wildfire season. Multiple fires had charred tens of thousands of acres throughout the summer within its expansive 5,300-square-mile service territory, threatening CEC’s electric infrastructure.
As part of its wildfire mitigation efforts, CEC had put its equipment on enhanced safety settings in early June throughout its high wildfire risk service territory. The settings prevent power lines from reenergizing if an object—a branch, tree or small animal—comes into contact. This helps prevent the ignition of a fire.
CEC personnel used internal and external resources to monitor the wildfire’s progress Thursday night, preparing to execute a plan if the fire encroached on the utility’s infrastructure. While the wildfire grew from 3,300 to 5,000 acres overnight, it was still miles away from the co-op’s closest infrastructure.
Friday morning, Chris Jones—crew foreman and a 19-year CEC veteran who has witnessed his share of firestorms—dispatched multiple teams to the Lower Bridge area near Crooked River Ranch, and to areas north of Sisters and Cloverdale. From their posts, they monitored weather and wind speeds while watching the Flat Fire’s progression.
The threat to the Lower Bridge area didn’t fully materialize. The nearly 3,500 acres burned in the Alder Springs Fire in June helped serve as a buffer, leaving the Flat Fire with little to no fuel.
Instead, the fire pushed southwest, consuming sagebrush, grasses, and juniper trees in rugged terrain as it approached residential subdivisions miles north of Sisters, connected by Wilt Road, Buffalo Drive, and Mountain View Road.
By Saturday afternoon, more than 600 co-op members were without power due to tripped safety reclosers, fire-mandated line shutdowns, or equipment destroyed by the fire.
Throughout the weekend, CEC kept members informed through its website, social media, and call service, while crews maintained communication with fire officials. Working in tandem helps ensure the safety of the general public and fire crews and, if possible, save structures. This is not always an easy task, as jurisdiction can shift depending on whether the land is private, county, state, or federal.
Then, there is often just waiting. Fire officials ultimately decide when the cooperative’s crews should deenergize or reenergize a power line or gain access to inspect the electric grid to make repairs. Conditions change so rapidly that crews can deenergize a line and reenergize it later, only to return and shut it down again.
“We just have to wait until we get the go-ahead from the fire official to let us in there and see what we need to do,” Chris says. “We’re kind of limited on outage restoral time, but as soon as they give us the green light, we get in there and we get it fixed pretty fast.”
After crews received permission to inspect equipment and patrol lines in the affected areas, they spent Sunday replacing power poles and distribution lines.
By 3 p.m. Monday, CEC crews had restored power to all but six members, whose properties had equipment in need of repair or replacement.
For those members, outage lengths ranged from less than an hour to 20.5 hours, except for the six whose power was restored by late Wednesday.
To date, the recovery effort has required replacing 12 power poles, ancillary equipment, and 660 feet of overhead wire.
“Considering the size and scope and how quickly the fire got to our infrastructure, I am extremely grateful for the minimal damage that it incurred,” says CEC President and CEO Brad Wilson, who has served the co-op in various roles for nearly 28 years, including as a lineworker.
“The weekend also demonstrated what a great job CEC’s dispatch and line crews did in executing their jobs throughout a dangerous and volatile situation,” Brad says. “Their performance and dedication in serving our members were exemplary.”
At the time of this writing, the Flat Fire, approximately 2 miles northeast of Sisters, was 97% contained after burning an estimated 23,346 acres.