SPOKANE, Wash. — Avista customers should prepare for longer and more frequent power outages this summer as the utility company implements enhanced wildfire safety measures.
The power company uses two different fire safety modes that make power lines more sensitive to being struck by trees and other objects, according to Vern Malensky, director of Avista’s wildfire resiliency program.
When outages occur while lines operate in fire safety mode, crews must manually inspect the equipment before restoring power, extending repair times…