Forest Fires Threaten the Electron Power Plant
A multi-million dollar power facility is at risk as flames advance along the vital 14-mile flume.
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The new power plant of the Puget Sound Electric company at Electron is in grave danger of being destroyed by encroaching forest fires. For two days, large gangs of men have fought to keep the blaze from reaching the massive plant and its primary wooden flume, which carries water for 14 miles through heavily timbered land. The facility, built by the Columbia Improvement Company at a cost of approximately three and a half million dollars, is not yet fully completed, and company representatives remain deeply alarmed by the situation.
“The main flume, built of planks, is eight feet square and runs for 14 miles through the densely timbered lands where the fire is now raging.”
The Electron Hydroelectric Project, completed in 1904, was a massive engineering feat for its time. Fires in the rugged backcountry near the Puyallup River continue to pose existential risks to infrastructure and regional grid stability, much as they did over a century ago.
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