YVEA is Putting Carbon County into Fire Protection Mode
October 1st, 2024 - The National Weather Service has issued a Red Flag Warning for Baggs, Savery, Dixon, and surrounding areas from noon until 8:00 pm October 1st, 2024. Members who are impacted by us going into Fire Protection Mode (FPM) have received a call and/or email from Yampa Valley Electric Association (YVEA).
To view a map of the areas affected by the Red Flag Warning, go to the National Weather Service website at noaa.gov or https://www.wrh.noaa.gov/map/?wfo=psr
A Red Flag Warning means that critical fire weather conditions are either occurring now or will shortly, including wind and low relative humidity. Excessively dry conditions and significant wind speeds are predicted to impact many of the counties in our service territory, which will create an elevated risk of wildfire, peaking the afternoon and evening of Tuesday, October 1st. There are currently no active fires, and we are putting our system into this safety mode in order to help prevent a fire from starting during these weather conditions. Members may use their power as normal during Fire Protection Mode, and will not notice any service interruptions unless there is an actual outage.
When these settings are activated, power lines are more sensitive and can instantly stop the flow of energy if an issue, like a tree branch touching the line, is detected. This does not mean the company has proactively turned off a customer’s power but is the result of an issue on the line. Power will remain off until our crews can visually inspect powerlines to make sure it is safe to turn them back on. These settings are intended to improve public safety during heightened fire risk conditions, but it means power outages, if they occur, are likely to last longer than typical outages. YVEA will position crews to respond as quickly as possible once the period of high risk has passed.
YVEA currently has no plans to implement a complete shutdown of our system – we would only do so if conditions change drastically or at the direction of emergency management.
NOAA has indicated that this Red Flag Warning will extend into Wednesday. Members should be prepared for extended outages until 8:00 pm Wednesday evening. We will continue to monitor the situation closely, and will keep you informed if conditions progress and the utility moves to the next operating mode. Please stay safe!
View our Wildfire Mitigation Plan at https://www.yvea.com/outages-safety/wildfire-mitigation/