July 17, 2026 4:00 a.m. 

Hundreds of Douglas Electric Cooperative customers in north county were without power for hours on Thursday after a tree fell into a power line

DEC Chief Operating Officer Phil Bigler said the outage began around 12noon and affected over 500 members in the area north of Drain, including Curtin and Territorial Highway. Bigler said since the utility has its wildfire-season protection settings currently set to be more sensitive, the outage affected a larger area than it might otherwise have.

Bigler said the large fell tree fell from outside their right of way, breaking one pole and completely stripping another in a hard to access area. Bigler said power was restored to all members shortly before 10:00 p.m.