The Wood River Valley's Christmas blackout kept police and firefighters on the go, checking out dozens of burglar and fire alarms triggered by lack of electricity.
The power outage was also blamed for a case of carbon monoxide poisoning northeast of Hailey, a chimney fire in Gimlet, an injury accident in south Hailey and distress calls from people on oxygen whose gas generators wouldn't work without power.
Ketchum Fire Department Chief Mike Elle said his department set a new record for a 24-hour period with 27 emergency response incidents from the time the power went out on Christmas Eve until the following night. He said the average for a 24-hour period is two and a half call-outs and the previous record was 14.
"It was mostly fire alarms and some carbon monoxide alarms," Elle said. "We had volunteers come in and staff a couple of extra engines and were able to get through it."
Wood River Fire and Rescue was called Christmas Day to a home on Crazy Horse Drive northeast of Hailey where a 55-year-old woman was found unconscious from carbon monoxide poisoning. She was transported in critical condition to St. Luke's Wood River Medical Center and from there to Friedman Memorial Airport to be flown to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in Idaho Falls.
Wood River Fire and Rescue Chief Bart Lassman said Tuesday that the woman remains hospitalized in Idaho Falls but "the doctor told me that she's improving very well."
Lassman said it's not known how long the woman was unconscious before an emergency crew was called to the home shortly after 2 p.m. He explained that the woman and her husband set up a generator in the garage but that fumes leaked into the home. The husband was called to work for a 12-hour shift because of the power outage and found his wife unconscious when he returned home.
Elsewhere, a Wood River Fire and Rescue ambulance crew was called to a home in Hailey about 7 a.m. Christmas Day for a 58-year-old woman suffering distress because her oxygen generator wouldn't work. She was taken to St. Luke's.
Lassman said oxygen tanks were delivered through St. Luke's hospital to several other oxygen patients during the power outage.
Wood River Fire and Rescue also transported a 49-year-old woman to the hospital from a traffic accident in south Hailey shortly before 10 a.m. on Christmas Day. Hailey Police Chief Jeff Gunter said the power outage was partly to blame for the accident because the traffic light at state Highway 75 and Countryside Boulevard wasn't working.
Hailey police were kept busy elsewhere checking out about a dozen burglar alarms that went off when the power went out. Even though all the alarms turned out to be power-outage caused, Gunter said police were still required to physically check all the buildings in question to make sure an actual burglary wasn't taking place.
Sun Valley Assistant Police Chief Mike Crawford said his department also checked out about a dozen burglar alarms triggered by the loss of power "because when the power goes off, the alarms go off."
Sun Valley police were also kept busy with traffic control at intersections with inoperable traffic lights.
Fire alarms kept firefighters on the go in the valley.
Hailey Fire Department Deputy Chief Carl Hjelm said crews checked out eight fire alarms on Christmas Day, all of them false alarms caused by the power outage.
Elle, Ketchum's fire chief, explained that fire alarms don't go off immediately when the power goes off but instead tend to go off when power is off for an extended period. Overhead fire suppression systems, he said, have compressed air in their systems provided by air generators. After several hours without power, the pressure starts to decline, which triggers an alarm.
"Once we get into the five- or six-hour range, things start to go poorly," Elle said.
Even though firefighters expect to find false alarms, buildings still have to be checked by a crew to make sure its not a real fire, Elle said.
Ketchum firefighters were called to a real fire on Friday afternoon in the Gimlet area but it was already out when crews arrived. Elle said he suspects a chimney fire burned briefly and then went out on its own.
Terry Smith: tsmith@mtexpress.com
Sun Valley police lend a hand in Ketchum, providing traffic control around midnight Christmas Eve during the massive power outage in the Wood River Valley.
Photo by David N. Seelig
