Mischief Blamed in Toppling of Electrical Tower
The toppling of an 80-foot power-line tower appears to have been an isolated case of criminal mischief rather than organized sabotage, authorities said Friday.
The tower held the main high-voltage lines that carry electricity from the Pacific Northwest to the Southwest.
A computer rerouted power to alternate lines less than 1 second after the line fell Thursday night, Bonneville Power Administration spokesman Perry Gruber said. No customers lost power, and a small fire was quickly extinguished.
Neither Gruber nor the FBI would say how the tower was brought down, except to say that no explosives were used. The owner of a nearby store said he understood that someone had unbolted support cables holding the tower in place.
“The report we got from the Oregon Department of Transportation person at the scene was that some drunks simply unbolted the two bolts that bolted it to the ground and it fell over,” store owner Steve Dalesky said.
FBI agent Gordon Compton said the FBI had no suspects. The tower was in a remote area with no homes, and no one has claimed responsibility.
The Bonneville Power Administration’s transmission grid covers 300,000 square miles in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and western Montana.
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