Power Line Poles Catch Fire, Prompt Outages - kcentv.com - KCEN HD - Waco, Temple, and Killeen

A series of utility pole fires across Central Texas caught on fire early Thursday morning, causing people in several counties to lose power.

Crews spend the day hard at work.

They're repairing utility poles like the one in front of Andy McDonald's house in Lorena. It was one of around 60 to catch fire across Bell, McLennan, Falls and Hill counties Thursday morning.

"Kind of like our own personal Olympic torch," McDonald described the candle-like flames atop the pole.

The lights went out around 6 a.m., then his daughter spotted the fire.

"There were chunks of burning wood on the ground...(we) went out and poured water on it."

Across Central Texas law enforcement officials scratched their heads.

"I can't even say career - not in my lifetime have I heard of this," said DPS Trooper D. L. Wilson.

The main theory is all the moisture from the fog helped spark an electrical fire with all the dust buildup from lack of rain. Oncor crews have seen this before.

"It's very common on a foggy day if it hadn't rained for a good while," Lynn Trout said while he fixed one of the burnt poles.

With almost no rain since September, and heavy fog Thursday morning, it was a perfect mixture to spark the fires. The first calls came in at around 4:30 a.m.

"All the electric companies are gonna be working hard today to try to get the power back on but that many poles being affected it could take a little while," Wilson said.

Over in Waco the Baylor campus went dark. But the lights came on an hour before students took their first final exams.

"I spent a ton of time studying last night and I would've hated for that to be a waste," sophomore Kyler Beisert said.

So without any causalities, the freaky phenomenon came and went. And a few end of the world jokes along with it.

"Start of the apocalypse," laugh McDonald, "the electrocolypse."

As crews repair the bizarre problem and hope future rain chances mean it doesn't happen again.