What is a Red Flag Warning?
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During wildfire season, you may see Northern Lights, Inc. post alerts on Facebook and on our website announcing a red flag warning is in effect.
What is a red flag warning?
A red flag warning is issued by the National Weather Service when there is a combination of warm temperatures, very low humidity and strong winds expected. All of these create an increased risk of fire danger.
When the National Weather Service issues such a warning for our area, these are the conditions when our co-op’s wildfire mitigation protocols may go into effect. This means Northern Lights’ equipment is set to stay off when a potential fault or outage has occurred and will remain off until lineworkers can patrol the line and ensure it is safe to reenergize. This creates longer outage times but also helps reduce wildfire risk.
During normal operations, Northern Lights’ line equipment is set to automatically try several times to clear a fault and keep power energized.
During times of high fire danger, our highest priority is the safety of our members, community and crews.
What can you do?
- Keep brush and vegetation trimmed down and cleared around your property, power poles, meter base and transformers.
- Make sure your contact information is up to date. Go online to nli.coop or call our office at 208-263-5141 to update your phone number, address or email address so we can reach you in case of emergency or planned outages.
- Be prepared for outages. Keep emergency supplies like, such as flashlights, water and shelf-stable food, together in one place.
