Nearly all of Vanderhoof was without power Monday, March 16 after a double circuit pole went down.
According to BC Hydro, tire tracks gave evidence of a hit-and-run which could have caused the damage to the cross arms holding up two lines. Both a transmission line (65,000 volts) and a distribution line (25,000 volts) were disconnected from the grid.
“The cross arms were broken and could not support the lines,” Bob Gammer, northern community relations manager said. “The circuits were tripped and [more than 5000] customers in Vanderhoof were out. We’re not certain but it does appear a vehicle hit the pole.”
The power in Vanderhoof was off from about 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. while BC Hydro workers fixed the broken cross arms - the pole itself still salvageable.
“The outage would have been longer if we had to replace the pole,” Gammer said.
The Vanderhoof RCMP could not confirm the allegations of the hit-and-run since they were not called out to the scene.