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June 2022
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YOUR COOPERATIVE Join your co-op at our town hall events! SAFETY Firework safety
2022 FIRE SEASON S
ummer months bring tons of fun and adventure. From camping and boating to backyard barbecues and picnics in the park, summer certainly provides the opportunity to create memories that will last a lifetime. Unfortunately, summer also brings an increased risk of wildfire. The wildfire threat in the western United States has become more frequent and dangerous in recent years. Since 2015, wildfires in Washington state have scorched more than 2.6 million acres. Homes and structures have been destroyed and, in some cases, lives have been lost. According to the Washington Forest Protection Association 674,249 acres were burned in the state in 2021. Of that, 88 percent were human caused, while 12 percent were caused by lightning strikes.
Another impact of these fires is an uptick in power outages. Utilities across the region have taken extra precautionary measures to ensure electric infrastructure does not add fuel to the wildfire season. Utilities, including Inland Power, have created a wildfire mitigation plan to ensure the safety of the public and the integrity of the grid. At Inland Power, we pride ourselves in providing safe and reliable electric service. Safety is at the forefront of our minds as we enter what experts are predicting to be another season of hot and dry conditions. Inland’s fire mitigation plan includes safety measures such as aggressive tree trimming and right-of-way clearing, monitoring of areas located in high and moderate wildfire risk areas and placing sections of our system on non-reclose or “fire safety mode.”
Outage-Reducing Technology Along the power lines that bring electricity to your home, Inland Power has installed protective devices in the form of fuses and reclosers, which operate similarly to circuit breakers. Fuses and reclosers serve the same purpose as the fuses and circuit breakers in your home. When a fault occurs, and there is no recloser connected, the fuse blows and everyone downstream from it loses power. Reclosers are devices that can operate a certain number of times before they stay open and an outage occurs. Here’s how that works. A tree limb contacts the power lines and creates a fault. The recloser senses it and opens, creating the first blink. This is where a recloser differs from your home circuit breaker. It waits a Continued inside