Residents report sparks from a power line before the Holiday Farm fire in Oregon

What happened

On the evening of 7 September 2020, residents near milepost 47 on Oregon 126 reported a power outage, a loud blast and blue sparks from an overhead electric line. State officials had pinpointed that area as the start of the Holiday Farm fire, later described as about 170,000 acres, but had not identified the cause. Lane Electric Cooperative, which serves customers east of Vida including Blue River, said it received multiple outage calls as winds rose and did not shut down its distribution system until early the next morning.

The cooperative said it did not know the cause. Bonneville Power Administration said it had no evidence that its equipment started any fires. The cause remained under investigation.

Contributing factors

Strong east winds and dry conditions were reported that evening. Whether the overhead line, falling trees or another source started the fire was not established in the report. A preemptive public-safety shut-off had not been started before the outage calls; that timing alone does not show that utility equipment ignited the fire.

Lessons learned

1. Reports of sparks or a blast on an overhead line in extreme fire weather should be logged against the reported fire-start time until investigators rule a link in or out.
2. Outage-call times, observed arcing and the time of any de-energisation should be recorded so they can be compared with the official origin.
3. Criteria for preemptive shut-offs in forecast high wind and dry conditions should be set in advance, and the decision and its timing documented.

More lessons on weather and external hazards, outages, backup supply and restoration, maintenance, inspection and ageing assets, from every incident on the register.

Not yet known

• Exact cause of the fire
• Whether overhead line started the fire
• Downtime or cost of the fire

This entry is updated when these are reported. Get an alert for the next one like it.

Source

oregonlive.com