Truck snags Spectrum wire, leads to power outage

Jun. 17—A snapping rubber band can deliver a brief sting to the skin.

But when the elements involved are rather more robust — a semi truck hauling a piece of heavy equipment and a length of wire pulled past its breaking point — the force is exponentially greater.

And so is the damage, Charlie Tracy said.

Tracy is the director of engineering for Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative (OTEC).

He used the rubber band analogy to describe an incident that led to a power outage that affected all of Baker City and extended to Haines, North Powder and other surrounding areas around 8:15 a.m. Wednesday, June 15.

The outage lasted just a few seconds for most OTEC members.

About 1,000 were without power for about 38 minutes. OTEC crews rerouted power to isolate the outage to eight customers, near where a power pole was snapped. Those members were without power for about three and a half hours, said Joseph Hathaway, OTEC's communications manager.

The episode started when a semi truck hauling a piece of forestry equipment was driving on Myrtle Street near Eighth Street. That's part of the truck route that departs Highway 7 in south Baker City and bypasses downtown.

The equipment snagged a wire owned by Spectrum, the cable TV, internet and phone utility, Tracy said.

Those wires are attached to the power poles that OTEC owns and that also carry the cooperative's electric lines.

As the piece of equipment continued down the street, it pulled the Spectrum wire, stretching it tight and also putting considerable pressure on nearby poles, Tracy said.

When the wire snapped the force broke a wooden power pole on Eighth Street, just north of Myrtle.

The Spectrum wire also made brief contact with an OTEC transmission line on the opposite side of Myrtle Street, Tracy said.

That contact tripped a circuit breaker at OTEC's Elm Street substation, causing the blip that affected the entire city.

Because the Spectrum wire touched the OTEC transmission line for just an instant, the power was restored almost immediately, Tracy said.

The system is designed to reenergize a power line if the "fault" that caused the problem no longer is present, he said.

The outage lasted longer for about 1,000 customers whose power was supplied by the distribution line — which is separate from the transmission line — that includes the snapped power pole on Eighth Street.

OTEC workers routed power around the section of line on Eighth Street, limiting the outage to eight or nine members who are served by the transformer that was on the pole.

OTEC crews replaced that pole — at an estimated cost of $3,000 to $5,000 — later Wednesday, Tracy said.

Baker City Police Sgt. Mike Regan said on Wednesday that the highest point of the equipment the truck was hauling was measured at 13 feet, 2 inches.

Kandi Young of the Oregon Public Utility Commission wrote in an email to the Herald that the National Electric Safety Code, which Oregon follows, requires communications cables to be at least 15 feet, 6 inches over a roadway, and power lines to be at least 16 feet.

Tracy said the investigation was continuing to try to determine whether the Spectrum wire was at the proper height.

He said high-voltage power lines generally are placed above other lines, such as Spectrum's, since the danger posed by electric lines is much greater.

"We're always doing everything we can to make sure there's proper clearance," Tracy said.

The Oregon Public Utility Commission requires OTEC and other utilities to inspect their lines regularly, he said.

The outage affected the refrigerated sections at the Baker City Safeway store, prompting its closure on Thursday, June 16.

"The store employees are working hard to get the store back where it needs to be!" Jill McGinnis, director of communications, public affairs & government relations, wrote in an email to the Herald on Friday morning, June 17. The store was open on Friday.