A broken BC Hydro pole resulted in more than 1,300 customers in downtown Sechelt and West Sechelt losing power early Wednesday morning as crews worked to fix it.
BC Hydro workers and the Sechelt Fire Department were called out to the 6100 block of Hwy. 101 where the pole wore out and broke.
"The top of it basically broke off and as it spun around, the high tension wires arced out and started the pole on fire," Fire Chief Bill Higgs said. "Then it was dropping sparks down onto the ground that was still quite dry, even though we've had this bit of rain." Higgs and 20 volunteer firefighters arrived after receiving a 3 a.m. page.
The power went out at 4 a.m. and alarm clocks began blinking 12:00 at 6:30 a.m. The outage spanned from Medusa Road to Boulevard and from Wakefield to Wharf roads, according to BC Hydro.
The fire crews thought the wires might burn off and ricochet onto the ground so they diverted traffic up Derby and Norwest Bay roads. It was fortunate there was a bypass route, Higgs said, because traffic was already quite heavy with truck drivers heading south for the first ferry.
While Hydro crews dealt with the wires, the firefighters safeguarded the scene to keep foot traffic away from the wires.
"High voltage wires can charge the telephone pole and put a charge into the ground as well and anyone coming up near the pole could be electrocuted," Higgs explained. "We were there keeping everyone safe and making sure the forest didn't start on fire because there were lots of sparks and flying embers all over the place."
Higgs said they got back to the firehall at about 7 a.m.
