Windstorm Through NW Cause Power Outages

By 250 News

Prince George, B.C.  -  BC Hydro is hoping to have service restored to 400 customers on the north side of Fort St. James by late this afternoon.

Spokesperson Dave Conway says a large spruce tree came down across Hydro's transmission lines just after 4pm yesterday, taking out power to the whole community of 2400 residences.

Conway says the downed lines caused a short-circuit, but power was restored to the majority within an hour.  However, he says, the downed lines sparked a forest fire that burned the Utilities' poles and equipment in the area.  Crews had to wait for B.C. Forests to put out the blaze and secure the area before they could get in to begin their replacement work.

The remaining 400 residences should be back up-and-running by 4pm this afternoon, but Conway is asking residents to turn off all their lights, appliances, and sensitive equipment, so as not to over-load the system when the line is re-energized.  Anyone needing information can call 1-888-POWERON, 1-888-769-3766.

There is another outage affecting 103 residences in Burns Lake -- it occurred just after 6pm last night and Conway says, while the cause is under investigation, he suspects it's a result of last night's wind that moved through the region.  Power is expected to be restored by noon today.

A downed tree across Hydro lines also caused a small outage in Smithers.  It went off at 8:20pm last night and is expected to be restored at 11am.

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