POCATELLO - More than 2,500 people were without power during the night when a pole caught fire near the substation at Fort Hall Mine Road and Old Highway 40.

Russ Jones, a spokesman for Idaho Power, said the pole likely caught fire through a process the utility company refers to as tracking.

"Sometimes there is a buildup of material, such as bird dung or dust that causes the pole to heat up and catch fire," Jones said.

The power went off at about 2 a.m. on Tuesday and affected people in the Indian Creek, Hoot Owl road, Web Canyon Road, Green Canyon and Marsh Creek neighborhoods. The outage went as far west as Arbon Valley, to Cheyenne to the north and the Black Cliff Trailer Park to the east.

"Initially we had about 2,500 customers without power," Jones said. "We were able to do some switching and backfeeding to restore about 1,000 customers."

Power was restored to the remaining 1,500 customers by about 10:17 a.m. after some significant work was completed

"We had to replace the entire pole and all of the hardware," Jones said. "It had to be fixed before the entire line could be served."