Wildfire smoke, ash disrupt power as hundreds of poles burn in B.C.
B.C. Hydro says it will have to replace hundreds of power poles due to wildfires raging in the southern part of the province, but that its major transmission lines have escaped major damage.
“There is quite a long list of items that are going to be replaced," B.C. Hydro spokesperson Bob Gammer told CBC's Daybreak North.
The Pear Creek wildfire, burning near Clinton, has torched more than 230 power poles and knocked out power to about 1,100 customers.
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In the Boston Bar area, the fires of the Brunswick fire complex have left about 100 customers without power and burned 34 transmission poles.
Significant quantities of power line and transformers will also need to be replaced, Gammer said.
However, the fires have not knocked out any of B.C. Hydro's major 500 kV transformer systems, and all of its primary transmission corridors — which supply power to millions of British Columbia — remain in service, the Crown corporation told CBC News.
The fires have gotten uncomfortably close to one key piece of infrastructure: the Kelly Lake substation just south of Clinton, which feeds electricity from northern B.C. to the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island.
Gammer said that proximity is the reason people from Vancouver Island to northern B.C. may have noticed their lights flickering in recent days.
"That is caused by heavy smoke and ash and soot that is getting on the transmission lines affecting the transmission system all around the province," he said.
"So the flickering lights you are seeing wherever you are … is basically brief little outages that interrupt the flow of power.”
Despite that, Gammer said the system was performing well and the issue wasn't causing prolonged outages.
It may be some time before crews will be able to get in and do the replacement work. Gammer said they'll need the all-clear from the B.C. Wildfire Service before they can access the fire zones.
As of Wednesday night, both the Village of Clinton and Boston Bar remained essentially encircled by active wildfires.
The wildfire service said it conducted part of a planned ignition near Clinton with the goal of stabilizing the fire's edge on its control lines, a key step towards securing the village.
Clinton Mayor Roland Stanke told CBC's Radio West that the village's evacuation order can't be lifted until the entire townsite is assessed.
“The assessments should be complete in about two or three days depending, because it’s a fairly large area, they’re doing the outskirts as well," he said.
As of Wednesday evening, the Pear Lake wildfire was almost 669 square kilometres in size and wildfire officials say hot and dry conditions could lead to heightened fire behaviour on Thursday.
The Brunswick Creek and Ainslie Creek wildfires around Boston Bar, which have torched a combined 375 square kilometres, remain active on both sides of the Fraser Canyon but aren't growing quickly, the wildfire service said Wednesday.
This article, written by Simon Little, was originally written by published for CBC News. With files from Daybreak North and Radio West