People returned to their homes in the Beacon Hill area Wednesday morning after a fast-moving wildfire burned more than 115 acres and forced evacuations.
Two structures were lost, including a home near the fire’s origin on Upriver Drive. A double-wide trailer and garage off Valley Spring Road also burned. And yet it was the area’s infrastructure that took the biggest hit.
Altogether, Avista confirmed eight of its transmission poles had either burned, melted or fallen due to the weight of the others coming down. David Vowels, spokesman for the company, said they were replacing the wooden poles with metal ones in case a fire burns through the area again, as it did in 2016.
Vowels estimated three five-man crews would be finished replacing the poles by Thursday afternoon.
Inland Power and Light Co., which first reported late Tuesday that 180 customers were without power as a result of the fire, downgraded the outage to about 24 customers Wednesday afternoon.