News
Electrical storm damages transmission pole; train tangles with sagging lines
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| A power pole and power lines are scattered next to a railroad line near the unincorporated town of Cochise on Friday after a Union Pacific train snagged a low-hanging power line, which in turn pulled down nine power poles. (DAVE BROWN / rizona Range News) |
By Carol Broeder/Arizona Range News
Willcox and Cochise were under a complete blackout Thursday evening after a train took down several power lines near Cochise.
An intense storm had damaged a Sulphur Springs Valley Electric Cooperative (SSVEC) transmission pole, allowing the power lines to sag near railroad tracks north of Cochise.
A passing Union Pacific train caught the lines at 7:16 p.m., pulling them down as well as eight transmission poles, SSVEC officials said.
"A power line went down and landed on the tracks, and our train hit them," said Zoe Richmond, spokeswoman for Union Pacific.
The engineer had seen something on the track and attempted to stop, but was unable to do so in time.
"It takes about a mile for the train to stop," she said.
"It was beyond our control and beyond the control of our engineers," Richmond told the Range News Friday.
There were no injuries as a result of the incident.
"Our crews were safe," said Richmond, adding that there was some delay to the train schedule, but "not a major delay."
Power was re-routed and restored to Willcox area residents by 7:54 p.m.
SSVEC crews repaired damaged distribution lines, and most of the Cochise area had power restored after midnight.
Some poles remained on the ground Friday morning, with muddy conditions hampering SSVEC's efforts to replace them.
New poles were scheduled for delivery to the Cochise site and crews were expected to install them Saturday morning, company spokesman Wayne Crane told the Range News Friday.
In an unrelated incident, a widespread power outage affected the Sierra Vista area Friday morning.
According to Southwest Transmission Cooperative spokeswoman Liz Hayden, manager of cooperative services, crews were responding to outage calls and checked the Kartchner Substation where an electrical fault had "locked out" power.
Just before 6 a.m., a breaker exploded at the Kartchner Substation in the northwest part of Sierra Vista and shut down the substation.
A breaker action detected a fault and shut down power back to San Rafael Substation southwest of Sierra Vista.
These two facilities provide electric power to SSVEC's eight substations serving Sierra Vista, Whetstone, Huachuca City, Sonoita and Patagonia areas, said officials with the cooperative.
After crews from Southwest Transmission Cooperative and SSVEC checked their respective facilities, the San Rafael Substation was energized and power was restored to all areas.
Outage reports began about 12:10 a.m. on Friday, followed by three separate subsequent outages. Electric service was restored by about 7:50 a.m.
(Editor's Note: Managing Editor Ainslee S. Wittig contributed to this article.)
An intense storm had damaged a Sulphur Springs Valley Electric Cooperative (SSVEC) transmission pole, allowing the power lines to sag near railroad tracks north of Cochise.
A passing Union Pacific train caught the lines at 7:16 p.m., pulling them down as well as eight transmission poles, SSVEC officials said.
"A power line went down and landed on the tracks, and our train hit them," said Zoe Richmond, spokeswoman for Union Pacific.
The engineer had seen something on the track and attempted to stop, but was unable to do so in time.
"It takes about a mile for the train to stop," she said.
"It was beyond our control and beyond the control of our engineers," Richmond told the Range News Friday.
There were no injuries as a result of the incident.
"Our crews were safe," said Richmond, adding that there was some delay to the train schedule, but "not a major delay."
Power was re-routed and restored to Willcox area residents by 7:54 p.m.
SSVEC crews repaired damaged distribution lines, and most of the Cochise area had power restored after midnight.
Some poles remained on the ground Friday morning, with muddy conditions hampering SSVEC's efforts to replace them.
New poles were scheduled for delivery to the Cochise site and crews were expected to install them Saturday morning, company spokesman Wayne Crane told the Range News Friday.
In an unrelated incident, a widespread power outage affected the Sierra Vista area Friday morning.
According to Southwest Transmission Cooperative spokeswoman Liz Hayden, manager of cooperative services, crews were responding to outage calls and checked the Kartchner Substation where an electrical fault had "locked out" power.
Just before 6 a.m., a breaker exploded at the Kartchner Substation in the northwest part of Sierra Vista and shut down the substation.
A breaker action detected a fault and shut down power back to San Rafael Substation southwest of Sierra Vista.
These two facilities provide electric power to SSVEC's eight substations serving Sierra Vista, Whetstone, Huachuca City, Sonoita and Patagonia areas, said officials with the cooperative.
After crews from Southwest Transmission Cooperative and SSVEC checked their respective facilities, the San Rafael Substation was energized and power was restored to all areas.
Outage reports began about 12:10 a.m. on Friday, followed by three separate subsequent outages. Electric service was restored by about 7:50 a.m.
(Editor's Note: Managing Editor Ainslee S. Wittig contributed to this article.)
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