Generators providing full power to most Westside Road homes Friday afternoon

Watch Above: Many on Westside Road deal with multi-day power outage caused by the Shelter Cove Fire.

UPDATE: BC Hydro has delivered diesel generating units to Westside Road customers and consistent power is expected to be restored by 1 p.m. Friday. In the meantime, the homes still have power on a rotating basis. However, some homes still in the fire zone remain without power.

BC Hydro is also asking customers in the area to keep usage to a minimum until the electrical system is fully repaired.

Many of the B.C. Hydro customers who have been living without power since Monday evening should soon have their power restored – albeit temporarily.

Hydro said late Wednesday afternoon that it planned to begin providing rotating power to 900 of the 1,100 customers still without power.

“There will be three rotations, each six hours long, providing power to 300 customers at a time. Customers can expect to receive six hours of power during an 18-hour cycle,” the crown corporation said in a press release.

However, 200 B.C. Hydro customers “directly in the fire zone” and the La Casa Resort will not be included in the rotating power scheme.

The outage started Monday evening when the utility says it was asked to de-energize a power line after the Westside Road Wildfire burnt through it.

“We did this for the safety of the crews fighting the fire and it impacted about 1,400 customers,” said B.C. Hydro spokesperson Mora Scott.

Tuesday night they were able to restore power to about 300 customers, leaving 1,100 still without power Wednesday.

The power loss has also caused water issues. The Regional District of Central Okanagan had to bring in emergency generators for two of their water systems in the area.

The local electoral area director, Wayne Carson, says some were without water in the interim, but their service has since been restored. The regional district says reservoirs never dipped below 65 per cent capacity, indicating only a small number of people could have lost water.

The pump house for a private water system in the Fintry area was also impacted by the outage, leaving around 80 customers without water. Fintry Utilities Limited says its system is too old to accommodate a generator. Those customers have also been put on a boil water notice.