Power for 3,200 Tooele customers was disrupted over the weekend when an alleged drunk driver hit a power pole.

According to Lt. Paul Wimmer of the Tooele City Police Department, Burke Leatham, 43, of Tooele was traveling on 1000 North in Tooele early Sunday morning when the pickup truck he was driving crashed into a power pole on the corner of 580 East.

Leatham fled the scene on foot but was later apprehended by police in a nearby field, Wimmer said.

The Tooele City Fire Department was dispatched to the scene to put out a fire ignited inside the truck Leatham had been driving.

“By the time they got there, the truck was pretty much engulfed,” Wimmer said.

Power was cut off to 3,200 customers in northeast Tooele at 1:39 a.m. following the crash. Rocky Mountain Power isolated the problem and was able to restore power to 850 customers by 3:46 a.m., and then to 1,950 more customers by 8:45 a.m., according to Margaret Oler, spokesperson for Rocky Mountain Power.

The remaining 400 customers had to wait nearly 12 hours for power to come back on while crews hand-dug areas where underground lines had to be rebuilt.

In total, Rocky Mountain Power had to replace the power pole, two cross-arms that run perpendicular to the pole, and underground service lines.

“All of those contributed to the very lengthy nature of getting the power back on,” Oler said.

Leatham was arrested and charged with driving under the influence and leaving the scene of an accident.

Jamie Belnap: jamieb@tooeletranscript.com