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Avista: crews restoring power and gas after Spokane fires; thousands still out
Summary
Avista CEO Heather Rosentrader said crews and mutual-aid teams are assessing damage and restoring service — just over 10,000 electric customers remained without power at the time of the briefing (peak outages exceeded 30,000) and about 5,300 natural gas customers remained without service while inspections and repairs proceed.
Heather Rosentrader, president and CEO of Avista, described operational work to assess damage and restore customers. "We currently have, just over 10,000 customers that are out of power, mainly in Spokane," she said, and noted that at the peak more than 30,000 customers were without power the previous day.
Rosentrader said restoration is proceeding where crews can safely access impacted areas and that Avista has deployed over 50 crews and is coordinating mutual aid from peer utilities. She cautioned that transmission damage in parts of West Spokane has reduced system capacity and that until two transmission lines are repaired the system may see outages during peak demand hours.
On natural gas, Rosentrader said about 5,300 customers remained without service; she explained that gas restoration requires in-person inspections and multiple visits before safely relighting service and warned customers not to attempt self-restoration.
