Smoke, outage and heat vex S.L.

Most residents probably found Sunday afternoon to be uncomfortably hot and smoky. But for a multiblock section of Salt Lake City, the afternoon was even worse.

First, the general woes.

• Utah's capital suffered through yet another day of unseasonably hot temperatures, with a high of 96 degrees, six above normal.

• Air quality was moderate around midday, but later ozone and smoke concentrations reached levels deemed unhealthy for respiratory-sensitive people. "That is, those people with a respiratory disease, the elderly and young children" should reduce outdoor exertion during hot periods, according to a recorded update by the Utah Division of Air Quality, concerning the Wasatch Front.

"Smoke from wildfires could cause high concentrations of particulates in populated areas," it added. Both ozone and particulate pollution were expected to continue at dangerous levels on Monday.

Cache County's air quality forecast for Monday was for moderate conditions. But Salt Lake, Davis, Utah and Weber counties were all expected to undergo "red" conditions, unhealthy for those who are sensitive.

As bad as that was, for 1,900 residents and businesses, the afternoon took an ugly turn when the electricity was off for about an hour.

"A central point of that outage is about 150 South 1100 East," said Margaret Oler, spokeswoman for Rocky Mountain Power. The power failure started at 5:53 p.m., and crews began patrolling to find the cause.

By 6:51 p.m., the utility was able to isolate the outage and bring the power back up. The cause remained a mystery, however. Oler added, "They never did find the cause."

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E-mail: bau@desnews.com