PG&E Installs Temporary Power Lines In Fire-Ravaged Coffey Park
SANTA ROSA (CBS SF) – PG&E officials said Tuesday that temporary overhead power lines will be restored by Friday to the fire-ravaged Coffey Park neighborhood in Santa Rosa.
PG&E's Santa Rosa-based construction crews have installed 226 poles and 155 transformers in the neighborhood that lost an estimated 1,000 homes during the Tubbs Fire that started Oct. 9.
Eventually the temporary overhead power lines will be replaced with an underground electric system that existed in Coffey Park before the fires, PG&E spokeswoman Deanna Contreras said.
The west side of Coffey Park will be energized Tuesday and the east side on Friday, Contreras said.
Marty Sunday, electric superintendent for PG&E's Sonoma Division, said LED lights have been installed on most of the poles so streets in the northwest Santa Rosa neighborhood could have light and restored power.
"This signals an important milestone in our wildfire response and recovery process and showcases the progress we are making for our neighbors, friends, families and for the City of Santa Rosa and Sonoma County," Sunday said in a statement.
The electricity also will help property owners rebuild and allow PG&E to be ready for service requests, Contreras said. PG&E's Sonoma Division has received approximately 540 requests, most of them in Santa Rosa.
The requests for new service installation, temporary construction power, service relocations and rearrangements, electric interconnections and new street light service can be made at the Customer Connections website at www.pge.com/cco.
PG&E crews also are building temporary overhead power lines in the Mark West Springs Estates and Larkfield Estates areas where power will be back on after the New Year, Contreras said.
More than 5,000 homes in Sonoma County were destroyed in several wildfires that burned through the area in October.
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