Power restored to Gallup area following explosion near food pantry

GALLUP — Power has been restored for hundreds of Gallup residents and parts of McKinley County after an explosion behind a food bank Tuesday led to widespread outages.

Gallup Police Chief Erin Toadlena-Pablo said the department received reports at 4:03 p.m. about an explosion behind The Community Pantry, 1130 Hasler Valley Road, on the north side of the city.

Sparks were seen on the electricity line, which caused vegetation to burn behind the pantry, according to Toadlena-Pablo. The city of Gallup described the outage as “due to a power surge” in a post on the city’s Facebook page.

The city government shared on Facebook that the electric department restored power citywide by approximately 8 p.m. Tuesday. The update also stated that crews replaced fuses and rebuilt underground service to the Community Pantry.

The building, which includes offices and a warehouse for food distribution, was closed Wednesday so staff could clean and organize it and restore food items. In addition to the structure, the property has a large outdoor area for gardens and greenhouses.

First responders managed to keep the fire from entering the pantry premises, Toadlena-Pablo explained.

Alice Perez, the nonprofit’s executive director, was inside her office when lights started flickering, followed by a loud explosion.

“The transformer blew right behind the community pantry,” Perez said. “The scary part about it is that all of our trucks are back there. … We were praying that they wouldn’t catch fire.”

Those trucks help the pantry with food pickups and deliveries, so losing them would have impacted services, Perez explained.

Pantry staff had stopped distributing food when the electricity went out. The pantry helps residents within Gallup and McKinley County and feeds 40,000 people annually.

“We’ll make sure people will get food, no matter what,” Perez said.

Power outages were reported throughout Gallup. Blackouts were also reported as far east as Thoreau and Crownpoint and north to Yah-ta-hey, an area along U.S. 491.

Areas outside of Gallup were affected by the outage. Electrical services were out for customers under Continental Divide Electric Cooperative.

Continental Divide, a not-for-profit electric cooperative, reported on social media that the outage was "due to an issue with a PNM transmission line" that feeds a substation in Smith Lake.

The outage affected customers in the cooperative's District 7, made up of communities on the Navajo Nation. Power was restored at 7:52 p.m., the cooperative reported.

Firefighters also responded to two structure fires on Gallup's south side Tuesday following the explosion.

At 5:05 p.m., the police department received calls about a fire at 1802 and 1804 Mariyana Avenue, in a residential neighborhood next to the Gallup Indian Medical Center. Neighbors stood on the street and in yards watching large plumes of smoke. The strong smoke odor prompted some neighbors to cover appliances such as air conditioning units.

Toadlena-Pablo said no injuries were reported and the cause will be investigated after crews finish at the scene.

“Right now, we’re getting two different reports,” she said. “One is that there was a fire that started on one of the porches, but that hasn’t been confirmed. Also, a report that the power coming back up, that someone had seen something with the power line, but we have not confirmed that with the fire chief.”

Relatives of one of the homeowners declined to comment but mentioned that both homes were not occupied.

Gallup firefighters were seen Wednesday inspecting the burned structures.

Fire Chief Jon Pairett did not respond to a request for information about the residential fires as of Wednesday evening. Personnel from the city’s electricity department also did not respond to a request for information.