SELIGMAN, ARIZONA — Power has been restored to nearly 800 Arizona Public Service customers in Seligman after a semi-truck crash on Interstate 40 knocked out electricity to the entire community for nearly two days, forcing every business in town to close, cutting off water service, and prompting a community-wide response to help residents through the outage.
The Crash
The incident began at approximately 1-2 a.m. on Thursday, April 16, when a semi-truck went off the road near Crookton Road on I-40 and struck a power pole, ripping down cables and scattering power lines across the freeway in both directions. A second semi-truck then collided with the first vehicle, compounding the damage. Body camera footage from the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office showed someone being handcuffed at the scene. The first semi-truck burst into flames. The driver was hospitalized but is expected to survive. Several cars were trapped by the downed power lines. I-40 closed in both directions and did not fully reopen until just after 3 p.m. Thursday. Intermittent closures in both directions continued Friday while APS crews replaced power lines.
Seligman Fire District engineer Tyler Cossey described the scene. “Power lines were down on the semi, started looking around, more power lines were down in the middle of the highway, and it turned into a bigger incident than what we thought it was,” Cossey said.
Investigators are still looking into what caused the first truck to leave the roadway.
Two Days Without Power
The crash knocked out power to nearly 800 APS customers across an area stretching from Pica Camp to Anvil Rock roads and from Younger Trail to Crookton Road — encompassing the entire town of Seligman, the birthplace of historic Route 66.
The damage to the electrical infrastructure was extensive. “Essentially, our crews will have to rebuild that portion of the electric grid,” an APS spokesperson said. Initial efforts focused on setting up a construction site, stabilizing multiple damaged structures, safely clearing power lines from vehicles, removing debris, and ordering and delivering new equipment.
APS transmission maintenance crew supervisor Isaac Larsen described the challenging conditions. “It’s a kind of rocky mess out here so hole digging takes a little bit of time, but at this time they’ve got the structures rebuilt. Bear with us, we’re working as fast as we safely can,” Larsen said.
Every business in town closed during the outage, including four gas stations. “There’s no place to go to the bathroom, there’s no place to get fuel. There’s dozens of people just sitting in parking lots waiting to go get fuel at some point so they can continue on,” said business owner Bill Pope on Thursday. Water service was also disrupted because the water pumps run on electricity. Water was restored around 4 p.m. Thursday. Cell phone service was also knocked out overnight.
APS told impacted residential customers they could be reimbursed for the purchase of up to 40 pounds of bagged ice or 20 pounds of dry ice to help preserve food.
Community Steps Up
With residents facing two days without power, water, or cell service, the Seligman community rallied. The Seligman Fire District set up a Red Cross shelter at the firehouse with food, water, supplies, and overnight accommodations. Red Cross volunteers staffed the location. “Luckily, we have a lot of volunteers in Yavapai County who are actually anxious to come out and help, and we actually ended up with more people than we needed right away,” said Tom Altavilla, Red Cross volunteer.
Helen Knackstedt, kitchen manager for American Legion Post 123, spent Friday cooking breakfast and lunch for residents without power. “We were also without cell phone service last night. We were without water. Thank God I have my cast iron to be able to run this kitchen stove, but we’re gonna have lots of food all day long and if we have to do it again tomorrow, we’ll do it again tomorrow,” Knackstedt said.
Local restaurants including Roadkill Café and Delgadillo’s Snow Cap provided lunch and dinner. Yavapai County Emergency Management coordinated water and ice deliveries throughout the outage.
“It’s amazing to see everyone come back together and help people in need, especially in this time of literal darkness,” Cossey said.
Power Restored
Power was fully restored Saturday. APS expressed gratitude for the community’s patience. “Happy to share that power has been restored in Seligman following Thursday morning’s semi-truck crash along I-40, which knocked out power to nearly 800 customers. APS is grateful to stand alongside the communities we serve and thanks the resilient people of Seligman for their patience and support as crews worked around the clock over the past two days to safely restore service,” an APS spokesperson said.
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