Thousands left in the dark Saturday night
Craig Power
8/19/2012
A widespread power outage left thousands of customers in the dark at around 8:45pm Saturday night following a malfunction at the Spall Breaker House near Spall Rd.
Michael Allison, spokesperson with FortisBC, says the outage was actually caused by a snake that had managed to slither its way into the facility.
"We actually discovered that a snake had gotten into the breaker house and made contact with some of the equipment in there which unfortunately caused the power outage," says Allison.
Approximately 2,400 residents and businesses were affected by the power outage that lasted for almost eight hours.
"It's very rare, but from time to time wildlife does sometimes get into the equipment and cause some problems," adds Allison.
FortisBC crews worked through the night to make the necessary repairs, restoring power to all customers at approximately 4:49am Sunday morning.