FORT PIERRE, S.D.(DRGNews)- No one was injured and no structures were damaged in a grass fire along Verendrye Drive Monday evening west of Fort Pierre.
Fort Pierre Volunteer Fire Department Chief Dustin Dowling said the call came about 6:15pm CT and there were structures nearby.
Dowling says the strong, gusty wind the area had on Monday had died down, which greatly helped the efforts to contain and extinguish the fire.
Dowling says the cause of the fire is believed to be an electrical power pole.
West Central Electric Cooperative and the Western Area Power Administration (WAPA) are investigating to see what caused the pole to begin smoldering.
Fort Pierre and part of the West Central Electric Cooperative service area west of town were without power for a few hours Monday night after a grass fire started a few miles west of town.
West Central Staff Engineer Kit Talich (tal-ish, tal like pal) says they believe sparks from the power pole started the small grass fire, but as for what caused the power pole to begin smoldering.
Only the one electrical pole needs to be replace, but Talich says it happens to be a pole that’s critical to their power distribution system.
Talich says the power was off in the affected area for about 2.5 hours.
Talich and West Central Member Services Manager Jessie Tucker say the pole will need to be replaced.
Once a replacement plan for the pole has been established, Talich and Tucker say customers in the affected area will be alerted ahead of time so they can make any necessary arrangements prior to the planned outage.
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