BY KAREN BOSSICK

The news that Blaine County’s power could be knocked out for two days over the weekend spread like wildfire, touching off a minor panic among some.

One woman reported 40 cars lining up to gas up at one service station shortly after the possibility of an outage was announced. And another woman, told by a local emergency official that power would definitely go off in a half-hour, rushed to the store for ice then stayed up all night babysitting the food in her fridge.

The threat never materialized, since neither the Mammoth Fire near Shoshone nor backburns set by Bureau of Land Management firefighters to protect the transmission line took it out of service.

But the event raised a lot of questions with Eye on Sun Valley readers. Here are the answers, provided by Stephanie McCurdy, a representative of Idaho Power.

QUESTION: Doesn’t our power come from Carey? Why, then, would our power be threatened by a line near Shoshone?

The 138-kV line that was threatened by the Mammoth Fire runs from the Midpoint Substation in Shoshone, traveling along a path around the east side of Picabo to a substation called Silver that supplies power to the town of Picabo and Carey. The line then heads over the Picabo Hills to Hailey, ending at the Hailey substation.

If the line had gone out, residents of Carey, Picabo, Bellevue, Hailey, Ketchum and Sun Valley all would have lost power.

QUESTION: Don’t we have two transmission lines?

Yes, there is a second line that originates at the King substation in Hagerman. It runs along the west side of Gooding, terminating at the Wood River substation in Hailey. The 138-kV line was purposely set in a different location in the event of threats, such as range fires, and was not threatened by either the Mammoth or Shoestring Fire that broke out Saturday between Wendell and Gooding. But that line was offline for maintenance when the fire started.

Idaho Power deployed a crew to ready that line so it would be available to provide power to the Wood River Valley, should the other line have been damaged. The crew completed the work by 2 a.m. Sunday.

QUESTION: Why did Idaho Power officials project power could be out two days if the transmission line originating near Shoshone was damaged?

The time to repair a damaged power line, especially a transmission line, can take varying amounts of time based on the type of damage. It takes longer to replace multiple poles and multiple spans of line than it takes to repair one line or one span of line. Had the line threatened by fire been damaged, it could have taken a substantial amount of time to repair.

Because of the threat, Idaho Power decided to stop all maintenance work on the King-Wood River line and make the necessary repairs needed to get that line ready to be energized. That work took approximately eight hours to complete.

Idaho Power also had crews ready to roll on any necessary repairs to the Shoshone line had it been damaged.

QUESTION: How do you protect your lines? With retardant? Wrapping them? Something else?

One way we protect our lines from fire is by managing vegetation around them. And the fact that we didn’t lose this line to fire was an example of that proactive work paying off. Most of the structures on that line had a 10-foot radius treated around the pole and we did not lose any structures in the area when the fire burned through our line because of it.

We also use steel poles, when available, on new construction in critical fire zones to prevent fire damage. And many of our line crews are equipped with water pumpers that they use to put the fires out on the poles when they can get to them. This is done after the fire has already caused damage to the structure so whether or not they can save the structures depends on when they’re allowed to safely access the fire zone.

Keep in mind, too, that many outages are caused by smoke that trips the line.

QUESTION: How should we prepared for the threat of an outage?

Have battery-powered lights on hand, as candles can cause fires.

Turn off electric ranges and space heaters to prevent the possibility of a fire if you’re away when power is restored.

Keep a large block of ice in the freezer to keep it cold longer.

Avoid opening refrigerator and freezer doors to keep food cool longer.

Have on hand an outage kit of matches, flashlight, blankets, battery-powered radio, batteries, bottled water, canned and dried foods, a manual can opener, a wind-up clock or battery-powered clock and a telephone that doesn’t depend on electricity.

Turn off all appliances, machinery and equipment in use when the power goes out, including the furnace and air conditioner. Doing so protects appliances against changes in voltage that may occur if a circuit overloads when power is restored. It’s okay to keep one light on so you’ll know when power is restored.

When power has been restored, wait 30 minutes. Then, begin turning home appliances and lighting on in 10-minute intervals to keep circuits from overloading. This restores power faster to everyone.

Find out about outages by calling 1-800-488-6151.