"Everything's back to normal" St. George police Sgt. Craig Harding said.
Power was restored about 8:30 p.m. to most major areas in Washington County after four hours of "mass panic" caused by a wildfire near Dammeron Valley that knocked out a electricity transmission line, Harding said.
A few small areas went without power until about 1 a.m., according to Washington County 911 dispatchers.
The 300-acre Powerline fire appeared to be under control Tuesday morning, said Sheldon Wimmer, state fire management officer for the Bureau of Land Management.
Overnight rain helped slow another fire near Cedar City, dubbed the Bumblebee fire, that grew to about 60 acres and threatened about 12 homes, Wimmer said.
And a Type III firefighting crew was expected to arrive about 10 a.m. to battle a lightning-sparked fire at Zion National Park that grew to 200 acres Monday.
"It is smoky here in the canyon, so we know it was active overnight," park spokesman David Eaker said.
Lightning caused about 50 wildfires in Color Country Monday, most of them small, according to BLM.
Dispatcher Erin Sullivan said the lights went out in her Hurricane home about 4:30 p.m. as she was dozing off for an afternoon nap. She was called into work for a 13-hour shift filled with frantic calls, she said.
Few of those calls were serious, Sullivan said. A handful of people were transported by ambulance after complaining of heat or other medical problems.
In St. George, all eight fire stations were manned to receive people with medical problems. Red Cross officials stood by at the Dixie Center with large fans running for anyone who wanted to escape sweltering homes, Harding said. Only one person took advantage of the offer, he added.
Harding said his wife reported temperatures inside the couple's home rose nearly 30 degrees to 98 degrees in the four powerless hours. The couple decided to buy a portable air-conditioning unit to plug into a generator for future outages, he said.
St. George Mayor Dan McArthur huddled with police, fire and utilities officials in a command center formulating plans for an extended power outage, Harding said.
There were no major incidents during the outage. And after it, city officials shared a singular thought, Harding said.
"That's a wake-up call," Harding said. "We need redundancy. You put all your eggs on one basket, and the basket breaks, you're screwed."
Harding said city officials discussed finding a back-up power source for the city in addition to back-ups for major facilities such as hospitals.
