BC Hydro crews on Vancouver Island have been pulled away to assist with the wildfire situation in B.C.鈥檚 Interior instead.
More than 20 trucks loaded up with a couple dozen hydro workers left from Duke Point bound for the Interior and they鈥檒l be gone for the next week or more.
鈥淭here鈥檚 been hot and dry and windy weather over the past week and it鈥檚 increased the number of wildfires in B.C. and that鈥檚 led to the evacuations in several communities and power outages affecting about 7,000 customers over the past several days,鈥� said BC Hydro spokesperson Mora Scott
鈥淲e鈥檝e been actively working with Emergency Management BC and fire officials in the central and southern Interior and there鈥檚 a lot of damage to our system right now; it鈥檚 quite significant.鈥�
Scott said an initial assessment tallied 170 power poles, 93 cross arms, 90 spans of wire and 29 transformers have been damaged, 鈥渁nd we actually expect these numbers are going to continue to rise,鈥� she noted.
Roughly 2,600 customers are without power in the fire zone, primarily in Williams Lake and 100 Mile House.
鈥淲e鈥檙e waiting for the OK from fire officials to gain access to the damaged areas鈥ut we know it might be some time until we get clearance. What we want to do right now is make sure we鈥檙e fully prepared to respond in those areas once we鈥檙e given clearance so we鈥檙e assembling material, equipment, crews and designers and other experts that will be needed to help with the restoration work.鈥�
It鈥檚 all hands on deck with about 100 crews working to get the people of the central and southern Interior restored.
And if the power goes out here there are still crews on the Island to get it restored.
鈥淭here鈥檚 still enough people to deal with the regular outages here but for things like planned outages that don鈥檛 need to be done right away, we鈥檙e just going to hold off on that for now,鈥� Scott said.
