Arizona Public Service will turn off power to thousands of Flagstaff and Grand Canyon area residents on Saturday due to extreme fire danger.
APS says it will shut off power as early as 10 a.m. unless the weather forecast improves significantly.
They say the intentional outage is designed to prevent downed lines from sparking a wildfire.
The National Weather Service warns of critical fire weather and issued a Red Flag Warning for most of the state through the weekend.
APS expects the shut-off to impact as many as 8,000 customers in east Flagstaff and rural areas, including Doney Park, Timberline, Fernwood, Mormon Lake, Cosnino, Sunset Crater, Fort Valley/Baderville, Walnut Canyon and Valle.
Tusayan and the South Rim of the Grand Canyon will also be affected.
Flagstaff’s Murdoch Community Center will open at 9 a.m. Saturday so impacted residents can charge phones and medical devices or keep medicine refrigerated.
APS instituted a public safety shutoff for the first time in April.
At that time, some rural residents also lost access to drinking water when the water pumps in Doney Park lost pressure.
