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 12:00 p.m. 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 have otherwise.

Bigler said the large 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.