SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — Witnesses to a break-in at a Rocky Mountain Power substation said it was far too easy for the woman to gain access to the property and she could have been seriously injured.

Witness Ryan Kent watched as police responded as the woman who climbed onto the equipment was taken into custody. There, he overheard Rocky Mountain Power workers talking to construction crews about how a tree near the fence was how she got over.

“It was high enough where the branch and some of the leaves fell over the barbed wire. “It’s pretty safe, but when you have a tree over it, it’s like a ladder,” Kent said.

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That tree no longer exists. A stump and some sawdust are all that’s left.

Kent said he stopped at the substation to see if the woman was going to be okay.

“She could ‘play in kindergarten’ right over the fence and then make a huge mess,” Kent said.

KUTV reached out to Rocky Mountain Power and asked:

• In light of this incident, will you be making security upgrades to that facility?
• What can be done to prevent people breaking into substations in the future?

Spokesperson Dave Eskelsen sent a response saying:

“We reviewed the incident for any necessary action, including a review of trimming or removing vegetation near the substation. We removed the tree in response to that evaluation.

– Cases like this, where an unauthorized person enters a substation, are quite rare. Substations are protected by prudent and reasonable barriers. Customer information on our website and included in billing information, as well as signs at our facilities, constantly warn the public of the danger of downed power lines and electrical equipment inside substations. Even so, it is practically difficult to protect substations against all conceivable intrusions.”

Meanwhile, Kent said the woman is lucky the power went out so quickly, and he’s surprised she wasn’t seriously injured.

“It’s dangerous,” Kent said. “There are power lines everywhere. I get scared when my child is near a small outlet where they can get a small shock from just that, let alone thousands of amps.”

KUTV also asked if Rocky Mountain Power would be liable if someone is injured after accessing one of their substations.

Eskelsen said they would not speculate on that, adding that substations are private property that have clear warning signs about the dangers inside.

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