JOHN DAY — The threat of a wildfire prompted the Oregon Trail Electric Co-op to de-energize a 138 kilovolt power line running from Hines to west John Day at 8:12 a.m. Wednesday.

Idaho Power repaired its damaged 138 kilovolt line feeding from Baker City into John Day and is now running power to the area. The company’s 69 kilovolt line between Unity and Cow Valley is still down, but it was scheduled to be repaired Wednesday, according to Lara Petitclerc-Stokes, manager of communications and government affairs for OTEC.

Until then, OTEC crews have picked up the Unity area for Idaho Power on OTEC’s 69 kilovolt line out of John Day.

About 89 OTEC member households are out of power, and it has not been determined when power will be restored, Petitclerc-Stokes said.

“The poles and wires have burned to the ground,” said Petitclerc-Stokes. “A power pole burns just as easily as timber or anything else in a fire’s path.”

Because of the fire activity, crews have been unable to assess the damage in the Canyon City area.

“This is an unprecedented event,” Petitclerc-Stoke said. “We have lost miles and miles of line and poles.”

Ned Ratterman, OTEC’s director of engineering and operations, spoke at a community meeting Tuesday evening at Grant Union High School. OTEC is ready to rebuild, but it is “just a matter of waiting for the fires to allow us to come in,” he said.

“The town of John Day is really fortunate in that it has four transmission lines feeding into it. That is really unusual for a town of this size,” Ratterman said. “At one time, we had three of the four lines out. Two of them were completely gone and burned.”

“The odds of that happening were astronomical and, yet, it happened. The whole town was very close to being out of power, and there was nothing we could do about it.”

OTEC crews imported a 2.5 megawatt generator from Seattle last week and delivered it to the John Day substation as an additional emergency precaution.

“Luckily, the distribution line at the upper end of Canyon Creek is still intact. And so, if things stay the way they are now, we will prioritize rebuilding the circuit that feeds that area.”

As displaced OTEC members return to their homes after enduring the wildfire evacuations, they may still find they are without power. This is not because the lines leading into their homes are not re-energized, but because their homes may have suffered meter-based damage.

In those cases, if members find they have no power, they should first contact OTEC; however, work outside of OTEC’s jurisdiction may be needed.

“For those of you in the worst case scenarios, our hearts go out to you,” Ratterman told those at the meeting. “When it comes time to rebuild, your local OTEC cooperative office is the conduit to use. Please go in, and we will walk you through the process as far as what you need to do.

“Trust me we are working tirelessly to get this rebuilt for you as quickly as we can,” he added.