Downed power lines sparks fires, causes outages

A downed power line sparked two fires eight miles apart and temporarily left about 1,400 homes and businesses without power Tuesday afternoon in southeast El Paso County.

Both fires started about noon and were both out in about an hour.

The larger of the fires, reported by callers to be about 40 acres was on the 3400 block of Fossinger Road, northwest of Truckton. The second fire, just outside of Yoder, was reported near the intersection of Highway 94 and Weissenfluh Road and was reported to be about 5 acres.

The downed line also caused a short power outage for an estimated 1,400 homes and businesses in the area.

The power line is maintained by the Southeast Colorado Power Association and spokesman Jack Wolfe said it was damaged by heavy wind over the weekend.

He said crews are checking the whole line to make sure that no more fires are sparked.