OWYHEE COUNTY, Idaho -- On top of all the land consumed by the Soda Fire, power poles have gone up in flames and ranchers and others in Owyhee County have been dealing with a loss of power at the worst time possible.
While firefighters' work is slowing down in the area, Idaho Power crews are working tirelessly to get the power back on as fast as they can.
It was amazing to see them work during the Soda Fire. Linemen essentially followed in the footsteps of firefighters to bring power back to those who lost it.
When firefighters respond to area wildfires, usually you can find Idaho Power crews right behind them.
"It's not just firefighters that have to go out," said lineman Reece Noble. "When we went down there the fire was still rolling through."
Linemen like Reece Noble worked tirelessly this past week to restore power knocked out by the Soda Fire. Some poles were still hot to the touch.
"Actually we put out three while we were down there with fire extinguishers that were still on fire," said Noble.
Power to Jordan Valley, Oregon was completely knocked out, so crews knew they had to get the job done fast.
"We certainly prepare for emergencies like this with inventory and having people available, but certainly when you have something as devastating as what happened in Jordan Valley you know that became first," said Brent Lulloff, Idaho Power Regional Manager.
For 24 hours there was no power at all to the small community near the Idaho-Oregon border. David Broom helped get Jordan Valley hooked up to a massive generator while crews in the field repaired lines.
"Most of them it was a water deal not power," said Broom. "For their convenience and their animals, because we do care about our customers, people think we just work for the power company, we care about our customers."
The generator couldn't reach everyone, meaning some went days without electricity.
Idaho Power was able to restore power to everyone impacted by the Soda Fire on Saturday and they are already looking ahead to the next fire's impact.
"We are trying to predict where we think we may have danger, and we are trying to do wary mitigation where we can to try to limit any outages or any damage," said Broom.
Idaho Power is already working with fire officials in the New Meadows are to foresee where the Tepee Springs Fire could have impacts to power lines.
Company officials stress they keep safety a top priority and would never put any of their crews in harm's way of a fire.
