BC Hydro described the restoration after a power outage that lasted 21-hour-long and left many in East Richmond in the dark last weekend as "very complex."
The outage affected 2,856 customers east of Viking Way, west of Boundary Road and north of Westminster Highway as well as a section south of Marine Way in Burnaby. The power went out around 4 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 2 and wasn't restored until about 1 p.m. the next day.
BC Hydro spokesperson Kyle Donaldson told the Richmond News a large tree came down and made contact with power lines near No. 7 and River roads.
"This was a very complex restoration job because the tree brought down five strands of wires and damaged two power poles that needed to be replaced," said Donaldson, adding pole replacement can be time-consuming.
"We also needed to bring in an arborist to help remove the fallen tree and ensure the area was safe."
It is unclear why the tree fell, but Donaldson said it "does happen from time to time."
"BC Hydro has one of the most densely forested service areas of any utility in Canada, and more than half of our outages are caused by trees and adverse weather," he explained.
The provincial utility agency's vegetation management team regularly inspects, manages, removes and prunes trees and other tall vegetation growing under or near power lines to prevent outage risks, Donaldson added.
"We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience and thank everyone for their patience."
BC Hydro is reminding the public to stay at least 10 metres back and call 9-1-1 when they see a downed line. Always assume a downed line is live, even if it's not sparking, smoking or making a buzzing sound.
Got an opinion on this story or any others in Richmond? Send us a letter or email your thoughts or story tips to [email protected]. To stay updated on Richmond news, sign up for our daily headline newsletter. Words missing in article? Your adblocker might be preventing hyperlinked text from appearing.
