Downed power line prompts mayhem

RATHDRUM - A downed transmission line on the Rathdrum Prairie late Friday afternoon sent crews from several agencies scrambling to restore order and service.

An Avista Utilities transmission line near the intersection of Huetter and Lancaster at 4:30 p.m. caused 3,500 Kootenai Electric Cooperative members to be without power for more than an hour.

"We use (Avista's) transmission line to move power," said Erika Neff, KEC spokeswoman, describing why members were affected.

Neff said the incident had an impact on KEC's Hayden substation, which supplies power to most of the firm's customers in the Hayden area.

At the peak of the mayhem, 62 Avista customers in the Hayden-Rathdrum areas and 10 in Coeur d'Alene were affected. Most of those residents' power was back on before 6 p.m.

Responders were investigating why the transmission line was down, but no vehicle accidents in the area were reported.

A grass fire caused by the line touching the ground quickly grew from a half an acre to 2 acres. Crews from Northern Lakes, Idaho Department of Lands, Coeur d'Alene, KEC and Avista arrived on scene to tend to the fire or restore power.

While the fire was under control, the live line delayed firefighters' efforts to put out the blaze. No structures were threatened.

"Firefighters initially had to just monitor the fire," said Jim Lyon, Northern Lakes spokesman.

The outage had far-reaching effects.

Swimming lessons at the Kroc Center in Coeur d'Alene were cancelled, businesses scrambled at closing time and law enforcement was called to some intersections to direct traffic. Other intersections had blinking lights, delaying traffic.

One resident posted on KEC's Facebook page to restore power in time for the Lake City High football game.

"We got that done," Neff said.