Image Credit: CFJC Today

By James Peters

BC Hydro

Itchy bears, careless shooters among causes of BC Hydro’s most memorable outages of 2019

Dec 17, 2019 | 6:36 AM

BC Hydro has released a list of its most memorable outages of the past year and several involve unusual occurrences in the Interior.

A pair of outages were caused by unwitting animal encounters.

In Williams Lake, ten customers were briefly left without power when a bear used a hydro pole as a scratching post. BC Hydro says a similar incident took place near Hope when a bear rubbed up against the side of a house, knocking the meter off its socket.

Customers in Clinton lost power when a bald eagle dropped its planned meal, a Canada goose, directly onto a power line.

Humans weren’t blameless when it comes to power outages, though.

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In Vernon, which is known for its hot air balloon events, a landing balloon contacted power lines. Eventually, the fabric of the balloon broke free and the occupants of the basket managed to land safely.

Speaking of balloons, there were 52 outages in the past year caused by stray inflatables.

And shooters near Stewart were to blame for a significant outage and $60,000 in damage after they used BC Hydro transmission towers for target practice.

For BC Hydro’s full rundown of strange outages, click here.