According to state officials, Newtok, a village in Western Alaska, lost power to its school after a Thursday fire.
The fire was located in a community of around 200 people, approximately 95 miles north of Bethel. It was described in a Friday Situation Report by the Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. At about 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, the Ayaprun School’s electricity plant was destroyed by the fire.
Officials from the state stated that the school was not connected to the village’s power source. The community is working with Lower Kuskokwim Schools District to install a temporary generator to heat the school. “The Native Village in Newtok washeteria has stopped working, and residents have used Ayaprun School for their water supply.”
Jeremy Zidek, a Division spokesperson, said that more information about the fire and its aftermath was pending Friday.
Zidek stated, “We are working with the community to find the solution to this problem.”
Friday morning’s call to the district staff was not immediately returned.
Zidek stated that Thursday’s power outage was the second in the region this week after an outage at Hooper Bay, 65 miles northwest from Newtok.
Alaska Village Electric Cooperative president Bill Stamm said the outage began Sunday when the local generator ran low on fuel.
Stamm stated, “The day tank was empty – the plant operators failed to respond to fill it so the engines went out.”
While work was ongoing to restore power, the feeder circuit breaker that served a large portion of the 1,300-person community couldn’t be shut down. It was caused by a power line cutting through one of the insulators.
AVEC flew a man to Hooper Bay to assist with power restoration. He was able to return to the grid by Tuesday afternoon. To balance the electrical loads in the local system, some follow-up work was underway.
Stamm stated, “That effort continues today but right now all electricity is restored.” “Nobody is running on generators or any other similar technology.”
Zidek stated that power outages are quite common in the region during winter months due to factors such as long distances and sparse populations.
Zidek stated that every year, power and water problems in western Alaska are a constant problem. They are far-flung systems, and there aren’t full-time linemen in many of these communities.
