North Winnipeg hit with power outage on top of boil-water advisory

CTV Winnipeg: Power outages hit Meghan Roberts on parts of Winnipeg left temporarily without power in the midst of a boil-water advisory.

A power outage affected 9,000 customers living in West Kildonan, Garden City and River East, leaving people without electricity to boil water under the City of Winnipeg’s ongoing boil-water advisory.

A Manitoba Hydro spokesperson traced the outage to a pole top fire at McPhillips Street and Kingsbury Avenue, which affected “a significant line” late Wednesday afternoon.

While the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service extinguished the fire, hydro crews started to switch customers to an alternate power feed.

By 8:15 p.m., it had restored power to 5,000 customers.

It expected the remaining 4,000 customers to be without power until early Thursday. Hydro crews needed to rebuild the pole that caught fire in order to restore their power, which would take an estimated four or five hours. The affected area runs between McGregor and the Red River, north from Inkster Boulevard to Leila Avenue.

Manitoba Hydro said weather is likely to blame; a mix of road slush and drizzle can coat power lines, which causes electricity to jump the insulator and contact wood to spark a fire.

It received at least one other report of a hydro pole fire this afternoon along Ness Avenue.