Cathleen Allison/Nevada Appeal Firefighters patrol for hot spots as utility crews begin to repair equipment damaged this week by the Angora fire in the Mount Rainier area of South Lake Tahoe.
Approximately 350 customers along North Upper Truckee River Road and customers living in the Tahoe Paradise and Tahoe Mountain areas remain without power due to the fire.
Linemen and other Sierra Pacific Power Co. personnel from South Lake Tahoe, North Tahoe, Carson City and Reno are repairing power poles, transformers and other equipment destroyed by the Angora fire, the company said in a press release. Crews will remain in place until repairs are completed.
In all, 52 power poles, 21 electric transformers and thousands of feet of wire were damaged by the fire and need to be replaced. Crews currently have limited access to some of the burned areas because of safety concerns.
Sierra Pacific has augmented its normal South Tahoe line crew and repair personnel by five-fold in order to make quick progress in restoring power to the area.
Approximately two dozen pieces of equipment have been sent from other Sierra Pacific locations to aid in the work. These include bucket trucks, backhoes and dump trucks.
Because of the widespread damage caused by the fire, tree trimming crews are expected to be in the burn area for weeks to remove thousands of dead and dying trees that are hazardous to the operation of the electric distribution system.