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Xcel Energy will cut power to 9,000 customers in northern Colorado starting Friday morning ahead of strong winds and fire danger, utility officials announced Thursday.
National Weather Service forecasters issued a red flag warning for critical fire weather in the northern Colorado foothills from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday, with low humidity and winds up to 75 mph creating conditions “favorable for rapid fire spread” and extreme fire behavior, the agency wrote in an alert.
Xcel Energy customers in Larimer and Weld counties will see power cuts starting at 8 a.m., including in parts of Fort Collins, Loveland, Kerns and Bellevue, according to an online outage map.
The outage area’s rough footprint is Wellington to the north, Windsor to the east, Horsetooth Reservoir to the south and Ted’s Place to the west.
Central Fort Collins is not included in the planned outage, including Old Town and neighborhoods near Colorado State University, according to Xcel’s map.
Planned outages in Loveland include neighborhoods north and south of Fourteenth Street/U.S. 34 between Glade Park to the west and North Wilson Avenue to the east.
While weather conditions are expected to improve around 4 p.m., “restoration work won’t begin until high winds and elevated fire risks have subsided,” Xcel officials wrote.
“It may take several hours to several days for customers’ power to be restored because a crew must patrol the entire power line to ensure it’s safe to turn service back on before a power line can be re-energized,” utility leaders said Thursday.
Customers can report outages and damaged power lines through the Xcel Energy app, online at xcelenergy.com/out, by texting OUT to 98936 or calling 1-800-895-1999.
This is a developing story and may be updated.
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Katie Langford
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