BONNYVILLE - A power outage is affecting a large area of the Town of Bonnyville and beyond, following damage to several power poles that occurred on Tuesday morning.
While on scene on Sept. 13, Bonnyville Regional Fire Authority (BRFA) Chief Dan Heney said, "it appears a tractor trailer unit hooked one of the lines off of these power poles and didn't notice right away, and so knocked down four power poles in that back alley and a fifth one on the corner."
Heney confirmed power was out to a large portion of town and some residents were also without water on Tuesday morning
"It affected the water supply this morning. The Town's back-up generator didn't come on quite right away, but I have been told water is back up and running," said Heney.
Fixing the damage will likely be a combination efforts between ATCO and the utility companies, with work taking the better part of the day.
The fire department was on scene since the situation was deemed a "public safety incident."
"So, right now, we're just containing traffic to make sure no one can get into these areas, even though the power lines are not energized, (but) they're not grounded properly yet, and there's always a possibility of issues," said Heney.
There are also power lines hanging lower than usual, so crews are making sure they don't get hooked again. The Town of Bonnyville will be putting up barricades to block the area and relieve the firefighters, allowing them to leave the scene when it is safe to do so.
Heney confirmed the driver of the tractor trailer unit was not injured.
According to ATCO electric, power is out in a number of regions, including in and around the Town of Bonnyville.
Bonnyvile Beach, Vezeau Beach, Muriel Lake, Fort Kent, Kehewin and more are included in the list of affected areas. A 5:30 p.m. estimate was given for restoration of power by ATCO.
Northern Lights Public Schools confirmed that power was on at its schools in the Bonnvyille area.
"The schools in Bonnyville have power and classes are going ahead. Unfortunately, the power outage is affecting our division office and that is why Internet and our VOIP phone system are down throughout the division," explained Nicole Garner, Communications and Public Relations Manager with NLPS.
"We do not have an estimated time of when that might be restored yet," said Garner.
