Wildfire Safety & Prevention
UniSource gas and electric employees work year-round to reduce the risk of devastating wildfires that can threaten public safety, destroy property and cause power outages, reducing the reliability of electric service for customers, and service interruptions, reducing the reliability of gas service for customers
We continually inspect, maintain, repair and upgrade our equipment. We patrol gas facilities and manage transmission line routes to ensure that vegetation does not encroach on electric infrastructure. We also monitor wildfires near our equipment and work closely with state and federal authorities during wildfire events.
Prevention
UniSource maintains an active encroachment and vegetation management program within its service territory.
Vegetation management crews work full-time throughout the year to trim trees and other vegetation that could create fire risks near lower-voltage distribution equipment. Employees conduct a visual inspection of all lower-voltage distribution facilities every two years to identify equipment in need of maintenance and vegetation in need of trimming.
Most of UniSource’s electric service territory is located in urban areas or unforested desert landscape. Our gas facilities are also in urban forested as well as unforested desert areas.
In the Nogales area, UniSource crews perform targeted visual inspections twice a year of transmission facilities located in forested areas. 138 kilovolt (kV) transmission facilities are patrolled by helicopter twice a year.
In the Kingman and Lake Havasu City areas, UniSource’s 69 kilovolt (kV) lines are also patrolled by helicopter.
Our UNS Gas areas are managed so that our leadership is closely aligned with emergency responders and public officials to react promptly in the event of a wildfire
Preparation and Response
Our UniSource Gas personnel in Coconino, Yavapai, Navajo, Mohave and Santa Cruz counties, employees survey and perform maintenance around aboveground structures to reduce the risk of fires affecting facilities that control pressures.
UniSource maintains strong relationships with state, federal and tribal agencies to facilitate communication about potential hazards and active wildfires.
UniSource employees will respond to incident command sites as needed to coordinate with firefighting agencies when fires burn near company resources.
