A big inconvenience turned out to be due to a burnt transmission pole.
For much of the afternoon on April 16, the power went down for just over 900 customers in Bashaw and various surrounding rural areas in both Camrose and Ponoka counties.
Alana Antonelli, manager of communications for Fortis Alberta, explained in an email that last week’s electrical outage was caused by a fire.
“We did experience an outage on Monday, April 16. Power went out at approximately 1:15 p.m. to 925 customers and electricity was fully restored following repairs by 4 p.m,” she explained.
“The cause was a burnt pole. Snow or fog acts as an electrical conductor and can cause pole fires or outages.”
Crews were sent to an area to the north of Mecca Glen School and south of Samson Lake to work on restoring pole and fixing the burnt pole. The outage was one of around six that took place across the province in areas served by Fortis.
Antonelli added that the majority of Fortis’ recent outages have been caused by the more spring like conditions, which includes the build up of salt and road debris on the power lines.
She also thanked the public for their patience as crews worked to safely restore power.