The Daily Spectrum from Saint George, Utah • 1

(Ty Cedar City rv he Spectrum Daily News Sunday, July 17, 2005 www. the spectrum, com 6 2005 The Spectrum Tiger Woods 2 strokes ahead in British Open St George High 111 Low 79 Page B5 Cedar City 7" High 96 i-r LW6 PARTLY Page B5 cloudy SUNNY AND DRY Page Bl a i lmdm tuft 1(6 Combined edition Because of the power outage that hit Washington County on Saturday, The Spectrum Daily News are being published today as a joint edition to allow for faster distribution of the Outage blacks out St. George, Hurricane i 'j 1 Jerel Harris The Spectrum Brittney Johnson sweeps up at Godfather's Pizza, 290 St. George on Saturday afternoon while preparing for customers to return. A power outage forced the business to temporarily turn patrons away.

Companies cooperate to restore power to Washington County residents 7i'S HV WM Dammeron Fire grows to 1,500 acres Saturday By JILL PRICHARD jprichardthespectrum.com ST. GEORGE As if Southern Utah wasn't hot enough, more wildfires created power outages across Washington County on Saturday as residents struggled to keep cool in triple-digit temperatures. The flames kept fire crews busy as they battled 27 fires in Southern Utah. The Dammeron Fire, 12 miles north of St George, grew to 1,500 acres Saturday as an air attack dropped multiple loads of water and retar-dant across the flames. Heavy air tankers made several retardant drops Saturday morning to help protect homes that were within a mile of the fire.

Two Dammeron Valley residents, Ted Easterling and Brent Rice, drove along Homestead Drive watching as helicopters and single-engine air tankers delivered round after round of water drops on the fire. The planes had been overhead most of Friday night and began again early Saturday morning. Drops continued throughout the day and into Saturday evening as planes flew countless times from the fire to fill buckets and tanks just a few miles west of the munity. "We were impressed with how fast they got the helicopter and spotter plane here," said Rice. "The spotter plane came out immediately," Easterling added.

Easterling alerted authorities about the fire the night before when he saw a brush fire ignited by a lightning strike southeast of his home. Easterling and his neighbor, Rice, who both own properties that border Bureau of Land Management lands on the east side of Dammeron Valley, became concerned about the proximity of the fires to their homes when they could no longer see the flames. "The visibility was about 100 feet," said Easterling. "The wind was blowing See FIRE on A8 Jud Burkett The Spectrum Above, a Sikorsky firefighting heli- Saturday near St. George.

Below, copter hovers over Sand Cove smoke rises from the Dammeron Fire Reservoir as it fills its water tanks on Saturday. By PATRICE ST. GERMAIN patricesthespectrum.com ST. GEORGE A fire burning in Dammeron Valley left residents on the west side of Washington County without power for hours and wasn't fully restored until about 10:30 p.m. Saturday night.

Jeff Hymas, spokesman for Utah Power and Light, said the outage occurred shortly before 4 p.m. Saturday when a line from the Red Butte-substation tfi" Central went down. Not only did the outage affect Utah Power customers, but also those served by St. George and Hurricane cities and Dixie Escalante Rural Electric. As of Saturday night, Hymas said the cause of the outage had not been determined because the fire was preventing crews from gaining access to the area, but officials do know that two poles bumed.

"We do know the fire caused the outage, but we still can't get into the area," he said. "We had crews from Cedar and Dixie respond, and we have crews en route from Richfield and Salt Lake City with three pole structures in case they need to be completely Marc Mortensen, assistant to the St. George city Morning briefing Iraq bombing kills at least 54 An insurgent suicide bomber detonated explosives strapped to his body Saturday, triggering a huge explosion at a gas station near a mosque south of Baghdad and killing at least 54 people. C10 Public works projects continue Although the flooding in January slowed some projects down and created others, many of the public works projects in St. George show progress.

A3 Restaurant brings game to Utah Thanks to the new Gun Barrel Steak and Game House, which opens this week, St. George now has the chance to sample beef, elk and even buffalo in a cozy environment. C1 Aussie wins poker title The chip lead shifted for nearly 14 hours at the 36th World Series of Poker the longest final table in tournament history for the richest prize. Australian Joseph Hachem went away with the pot. C6 Reunions create family memories Families gather in numbers small and great to reunite as one sharing stories, eating and playing games for an afternoon or several days at a variety of family reunions.

D1 Inside Today Answerline A4 Opinion A6 Events A4 Sports Bl Classifieds El State A9 D4 Stocks C4 Local A2 SW D1 Money CI Travel D6 Movies D5 B5 Nation C7 West C5 Obituaries A7 World C9 Subscriber Service If you haven't received your paper by 7 a.m. call Subscriber Service by 10 a.m. A copy will be sent. Spectrum 674-6212 Daily News GANNETT 586-7646 2005 The Spectrum $1.50 Mill xauu iA .1 J' v-1 L. More Inside Washington County residents and visitors found the blackout inconve- nient Page A5 High temperatures raise demand for power in Southern Utah.

Page A8 manager, said electricity was restored to residents in St. George after power was rerouted to the St. George switchyard. Mortensen said restoring power to the area was a cooperative effort between Pacificorp (Utah Power and Light), St. George and Hurricane cities and Dixie Escalante.

"We are. all working together, and it's going well," Mortensen said of the effort. While Hymas said two power poles were burned, smoke from the fire also could have caused the outage. Smoke can open circuits, which can cause a power outage. David Boyd, spokesman for the Color County Fire Management area, said that the fire crews understand the need for power personnel to get into the area to assess the situation as soon as possible, See OUTAGE on A8 From left, Ben Leavitt and his brothers Andrew and Ethan dress as their favorite character, Harry Potter, at the Little Professor Bookstore on Friday night.

Katie Ashton The Spectrum community came together to interact, and the Harry Potter phenomenon has helped with that, she said. See POTTER on A8 'Harry Potter' book sells faster than fans can say 'quidditch' 9 L-Jkl By KATIE ASHTON kashtonthespectrum.com Harry Potter fans descended upon the Little Professor Bookstore on Friday night. They engaged in quid-ditch matches, wand making and, of course, counting down in unison to the stroke of midnight for the release of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince." A similar crowd gathered at Braun Books on Main Street in Cedar City. "It's the best book ever," exclaimed Alyssa Staheli, who was dressed in Potter fashion for the Little Professor party. The anticipation during the two hours leading up to the book's release was easy for most compared to the two years Muggle fans have been waiting for this latest Iwxl lh Meg Cady The Spectrum Kip Howard, left, and Tyler Braun, right, owner of Braun Books in Cedar City, ask questions of Potter fans during the bookstore's Potter party on Friday.

the bookstore partaking in the activities, talk of who the Half-Blood Prince is lingered among the fans. Staheli and Broad think the secret will be revealed with the introduc books and movies. "Harry Potter has kinda become our niche," she said. When Waggoner first opened the store, she wanted it to be a place where the tion of a new character. Little Professor store owner Kerry Waggoner is a veteran at hosting Harry Potter parties: She has had parties for releases pf new installment.

"I've been waiting since June 2003," said Stahcli's friend, Katelyn Broad. With Potter look-a-likes walking back and forth from WWW 245 W. TABERNACLE ST. GEORGE 673-96411 Vrjrffwtfi mlf HlllS 60 Years Seiving Southern Utah llCUV ww. Everything marked down to.