Pole-top fires knock out power for thousands in Manitoba

With a flashlight in hand, Elena Villegas lights up a dark room - a task that's become all too common for her family in their West Kildonan home.

That's because the power has gone out in the neighbourhood at least two times so far this year. The first time it was out for six hours, leaving the family with no heat, no lights and no electricity.

"It was scary,” said Villegas.

It happened again on Monday night when Manitoba Hydro said a pole-top fire knocked out power to 5,000 customers for four hours.

"So now, we're thinking about which one will be the next one you know because we don't exactly know what's going to happen,” said Villegas. “So we're buying a lot of candles."

Candles likely came in handy for people across southeast and south central Manitoba. That's because there were several outages reported in those areas.

A pole-top fire in Starbuck knocked out power for 350 customers Wednesday morning while people in Portage la Prairie, Sanford and Ste. Agathe also had no electricity.

"The weather has provided some challenges for us,” said Manitoba Hydro spokesperson Anthonie Koop.

Koop said pole-top fires have been the cause in many cases - a common problem when dirt and grime build up on the lines. Combine that with wet snow and the mixture can create a pathway for electricity to flow into the wooden poles which can spark a fire.

"This time of year is when it happens because the conditions are right,” said Koop. “So in the spring we do have to deal with pole-top fires."

Manitoba Hydro said treacherous driving conditions made responding to outages more difficult for their crews, especially in rural areas.

"Our response might've been a bit slower in some cases but it was just because travel was very difficult," said Koop.

The pole-top fires in West Kildonan have been more complicated because there's two lines on the same set of poles, leaving no backup source of power when there's a fire.

Villegas worries more outages will wreck her home electronics.

"We try to disconnect everything and try to manage like that,” she said.

Luckily for her, Manitoba Hydro has started installing an underground line on Kingsbury Avenue which will help keep the power on if there's problem with the poles.

Hydro hopes to have that projected completed by the middle of April.