More than 3,000 BC Hydro customers in the Sechelt area experienced power outages July 20 in two separate incidents involving downed wires that caused small brush fires.
The Sechelt Fire Department responded to the first call, on Sechelt Inlet Road and Sechelt Crescent, at about 2 p.m. after power lines came down off a pole and ignited the brush, which spread to a nearby building, according to assistant fire chief Dwight Davison.
The fire on exterior of the building at the commercial property at 5916 Sechelt Inlet Road was in a “very small condensed area,” and the crew was able to extinguish it quickly, said Davison.
According to BC Hydro, a fallen tree caused the downed wires and 888 homes were affected.
Crews were called later that evening to another fire caused by downed power lines, this time at Sechelt Inlet Road and Black Bear Road.
Davison said the primary power lines are believed to have failed and come off the pole. The live wires landed on the ground, causing a brush fire on both sides of the road.
Five trucks and 22 firefighters, or about two thirds of the fire department, were called to the scene at approximately 8:15 p.m. and stayed for about an hour and a half.
Most of the fire was extinguished by the time BC Hydro arrived and power was restored to the 2,368 homes East of Seawatch Lane and north of Dolphin Street by 10 p.m.
“The cooler weather and the rain over the last few weeks definitely kept that from getting any bigger. Right now the brush and shrubbery is pretty green. Another week or two of hot and dry weather it could easily have gotten bigger, faster,” said Davison.
No one was injured in either incident.
