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Tree delivers power knockout to Trail

Night seemed to fall early in Trail Wednesday when a tree knocked power out for 2,900 customers at around 3 p.m.
35460traildailytimesTrailpoweroutageFortisBClinemen02-23-12
FortisBC linemen were quick to the scene Wednesday

Night seemed to fall early in Trail Wednesday when a tree knocked power out for 2,900 customers at around 3 p.m.

It didn’t take long for a crew of FortisBC linemen to get service back up and running for downtown, Glenmerry and Casino residents but some West Trail customers had to fire up the barbecue around dinner time without power expected to be restored until later into the evening.

“We’ve had a lot of windy days for a while and we haven’t had this happen for a long timeval so it’s just one of those days, I guess,” said FortisBC spokesperson Neal Pobran.

By about 4:30 p.m., 1,000 customers remained without service due to the culprit – a large tree that snapped off of a private property in the wind and fell onto a line at the beginning of Daniel Street.

“We had a wind storm come up here and basically knock this tree down and it took out our three-phase circuits . . . ,” explained Shawn Conway, superintendent on site.

“We lost our whole substation in Glenmerry, which dropped all of Trail out because of this tree right here.”

The tree broke through wires and caused a fault, tripping out a circuit.

“This is typical for the Kootenays,” said Conway.