Tree crews work to clear damaged or dead trees, burned in the Cranston Fire along Highway 74 on Thursday.
Photo by Halie Wilson

In remote, heavily burned areas, helicopters are being used by Southern California Edison to replace power poles.
Photo Courtesy Southern California Edison
Southern California Edison identified 132 poles that were damaged, according to a press release just issued. Of those, 32 were set on Wednesday for a total of 116 poles replaced so far.

Helicopters are working with crews on the ground to set the poles. Despite very difficult terrain and severe soil conditions, which requires hand-digging each pole hole, SCE expects all the remaining pole holes to be completed today.

Service remains off to roughly 140 SCE customers in the Mountain Center area, down from 4,000 at the height of the fire. SCE crews are on track to restore service to roughly 110 SCE customers today and to the remaining 30 SCE customers by Friday.

SCE is completing repairs to damaged areas on SCE’s side of the connection with Anza Electric Cooperative and, barring any changes to conditions on the ground, SCE is on track to complete repairs on its system by Friday.