Power restored to thousands of customers following pole fires that caused outages

A damaged pole that has caused a power outage for thousands of people in Winnipeg. (Source: Manitoba Hydro/Twitter)

WINNIPEG — Power has been restored to thousands of customers in the southwest and west parts of Winnipeg.

Manitoba Hydro originally tweeted just before 10:30 a.m. that a power outage occurred in the Tuxedo and St. James areas.

Hydro said the outage was caused by pole fires and around 4,300 customers were impacted.

Just after 2:30 p.m., Hydro said the power had been restored in the area.

Several schools in the area were affected by the outage according to the Pembina Trails School Division, including Shaftesbury High School. Laidlaw School and École Tuxedo Park.

The Assiniboine Park and Zoo said on Facebook it also felt the impact of the power outage, but it reopened once the outage was fixed.

A second outage was reported just before 3 p.m. in the St. Vital area, again caused by a pole fire. Around 1,000 customers were affected.

In an email to CTV News, Manitoba Hydro said pole fires are common in the spring and can be caused by snow and rain.

"Dirt and grime build up on insulators and allow electricity to flow through them. The heat causes the pole to start on fire," said Riley McDonald, who works in media relations for Hydro.