Protem residents lose power due to truck taking down lines
Blackened grass around the Protem electrical substation shows the result of a small fire that started when power lines came down Friday evening, reportedly due to a boom truck with boom extended running into overhead wires and pulling them down, along with two utility poles. No injuries were reported.
Eighty-eight Protem-area residents were without power for several hours Friday night after electric lines and two utility poles were taken out by an unidentified truck driver.
White River Valley Electric Co-op spokesperson Cassie Cunningham said the co-op was told the damage was caused by a boom truck with its boom extended, but she described that report as speculation.
Clerk of Taney Circuit Court Beth Wyman said in a Facebook post that “a boom truck hooked the power line and snapped a three-phase pole.” Wyman told the Times Monday that one vehicle was damaged when a power line fell on its windshield. She expressed thanks to the Protem Fire Department for handling “the grass fire from the hot line coming down and stopping traffic.” The Taney County Sheriff’s Office and Missouri State Highway Patrol also responded, she said.
The truck apparently took down the first pole at the Protem substation at 5:45 p.m. and soon another pole fell closer to the Arkansas line, Cunningham said. Power was restored to most of the 88 customers “when the Protem pole was replaced around midnight. ... The remainder were brought back up with the second pole’s replacement at 3 a.m.”
Wyman said the driver “left the scene and is being searched for.” The incident is being handled by MSHP, she said.