Earth, winds and fire
Mark Thorsteinson and Heather Bellings of the Whitefish Volunteer Fire Department protected passers-by Thursday from a fallen power line on U.S. 93 north of Whitefish. Bellings said there were multiple small fires and power outages caused by Thursday’s high winds. Aaron Springston/Daily Inter Lake
Gusts knock out power, spark blazes
Blustery winds kept firefighters and power-company linemen busy clearing felled trees and repairing damaged lines Thursday evening.
Winds ranging from 13 to 21 mph with gusts as strong as 33 mph blew through the Flathead Valley on Thursday afternoon and evening, according to the National Weather Service.
While the winds blew for most of the day, "right around 5 o'clock is when the real action started happening," said Stephanie Wallace, Flathead Electric Cooperative's community relations manager.
The Flathead County Sheriff's Office received the first of about 20 power-line-related calls at 4:57 p.m. Thursday, when a tree blew onto a power line at the intersection of Montana 40 and Dillon Road. Franco Guerri, who owns Renaissance West across the highway from the downed tree, saw the wire sparking.
"One fire truck came, but because of the danger of the high voltage wire, they just stood off to the side," he said. "Cars were driving underneath the wire. This tree was cantilevered at a 45-degree angle over the cars driving by."
Eventually the tree broke completely through the power line.
"It sounded like a shot," Guerri said. "It came down resting on the TV and telephone wires.
"It was kind of iffy. … To me, it looked potentially dangerous."
In addition to the teetering tree, brush fires ignited by the sparking wire were another hazard, he said.
"They were getting whipped up by the wind," he said. "It wasn't too dry, but it was dry enough to burn with the wind."
The Whitefish Fire Department was on hand to put the fires out, and soon a Flathead Electric employee took care of the wire. Power on that line was restored at 7:19 p.m., Wallace said.
The biggest power outage happened at about 9 p.m., when a tree fell through a transmission line. All of Whitefish, from Big Mountain to Majestic Valley Arena and halfway to Columbia Falls, lost power when that happened, Wallace said.
The outage affected about 4,500 customers, she said - maybe more.
"That's probably a low estimate at this point," she said.
The line was restored at about 11 p.m., and most customers were back in power by 11:15 p.m., she said.
Other Flathead Electric customers lost power in scattered outages across the valley, caused by trees and limbs blown through distribution lines. Outages were reported near Glacier Park International Airport, south of Ferndale and around Truman Creek. A Bonneville Power Administration line went down near Libby, shutting down the power for many residents there.
Flathead Electric employees were out all night and most of Friday restoring power and cleaning up debris, Wallace said.
Firefighters also were on cleanup duty. Whitefish firefighters were dispatched to 13 reported downed power lines and trees in a 3 1/2-hour period Thursday evening. Volunteer fire departments across the valley responded to similar calls.
"Whenever a line is down, in a public area in particular, the fire departments are great in that area to make sure the public is safe," Wallace said. "We sure thank them. It helps make the lineman's job easier if he can focus on fixing it."
Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or by e-mail at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com.