Schellville pallet factory fire damaged electrical lines

Palette factory fire affected 156 residents for up to 18 hours, says PG&E.|

The Election Day fire at the pallet factory in Schellville knocked out electrical service to businesses and residences in the area of the Sonoma Pacific Co., at 1180 Fremont Dr. (Highway 121). According to a PG&E spokesperson, a transmission line and a distribution line were both “impacted” by the fire. Residents said that two lines went down in the easement between properties in the area.

“In addition, PG&E crews de-energized additional lines (powered down) at the request of the local incident commander for the safety of the fire fighters,” said Deanna Contreras of PG&E.

The failure of the power lines meant that approximately 156 customers were affected, said Contreras. Among them was Cecile Kiser, who said her home on Broadway near the fire scene was without power until 8 p.m. on Tuesday, though PG&E did supply a generator so she could have electricity.

All-Truss, a commercial roof and floor truss manufacturer, was without power for a day-and-a-half and had to shut down its production. “Obviously if you lose power and operation, you lose money,” said operations manager Richard Hernandez.

Contreras said that PG&E responders repaired the lines and restored power to most area residents and businesses by 6:15 p.m. that same day, though some lines remained affected until late the following evening.

“Crews safely made repairs to the two phases of transmission line along with its damaged insulators and to the distribution conductor, along with equipment on that line,” said Contreras. “All lines were restored to service by 6:30 p.m. June 6.”

Earlier reporting by the Index-Tribune implied no power lines failed during the fire, but that proved to be incorrect.

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