Power outage for thousands in Ogden tied to North Ogden fire
Aug 13, 2025, 4:37 PM | Updated: 9:25 pm
Rocky Mountain Power trucks near the scene of the Willard Peak Fire burning in North Ogden on Wed., Aug. 13. (Rocky Mountain Fire)
(Rocky Mountain Fire)
SALT LAKE CITY — A large power outage in the Ogden area is confirmed to be linked to the Willard Peak Fire that began burning in North Ogden on Wednesday afternoon.
When Rocky Mountain Fire first posted about the outage there were around 10,500 customers without power. By Wednesday night though, that number had grown to about 25,000 customers without power.
We’re aware of a power outage affecting 10,495 customers in Ogden, UT and surrounding areas. The cause is due to emergency repair. Crews are working to restore power as safely and quickly as possible. For updates, please text OUT to 759677 or visit https://t.co/5KJ7zd0MQ1. pic.twitter.com/wuspSdwBgz
— Rocky Mountain Power UT (@RMP_Utah) August 13, 2025
Dave Eskelsen, spokesperson with Rocky Mountain Power, told KSL NewsRadio that the Willard Peak Fire had burned through a transmission line corridor.
“These are steel structures, but smoke is electrically conductive and it caused those lines to trip … as they are designed to do for safety reasons,” Eskelsen said.
Rocky Mountain Power decided they’d need to cut power to a “certain number of customers” until their teams could get near the fire area “and inspect those lines and restore that major transmission path to service.
Part of the transmission path in question travels from the Ben Lomand sub-station in North Ogden to another sub-station closer to Riverdale.
“So that area of North Ogden, Pleasant Grove, and even wider areas, because we don’t have enough import capability to serve all the customers in that area,” Eskelsen said.
And even though customers without power don’t have to do much more than deal with a power outage, Rocky Mountain Power asks that they do one more thing and turn off their air conditioners.
“If customers who are out of service right now would go around and turn all of those non-essential appliances, even air conditioners, off for now,” Eskelsen said, “we can prevent the situation where all of the air conditioners in that area are cycling on all at once.”
Eskelsen said that will be a huge help, once fire officials allow the power company into the area to check their equipment.
