Another meter caught fire in Regina, and this one had already been given the thumbs up after an inspection.
“This house was inspected July 26, so a few weeks ago, and we still have the pictures on file. There was no sign of damage at the time,” Jonathon Tremblay, SaskPower’s spokesman, said. “So that shows that there’s still significant ground shifting in the three weeks since then.”
The smaller boxes on older homes are most susceptible to ground shifting, Tremblay said.
“It was a lot of sparking, and it looked kind of flamey,” neighbour Kristen McIntyre said.
“It sounded like popcorn or a backfiring engine,” neighbour Tasha Flostrand said.
Neighbours quickly reported the fire, and power to the area was cut, Tremblay said.
More than 400 customers who have already been inspected are now going to get revisited, he added.
“They may not have had damage at the time but three, four weeks later we may have seen three to four inches of ground shift, and this time we’re not taking any chances at all,” Tremblay said. “All of their meter boxes will be removed entirely for a permanent fix with a junction box and additional feet of wiring down the road.”
Tremblay said the smaller boxes should all be removed by the end of Monday.
SaskPower is asking customers to check their meters again.
“Look for key signs of early damage: that’s a tilting power box, a power box pulling away from the home, any frayed wiring coming out of the bottom of it, and any new significant gap between their house and the ground that can still happen and keep growing up until the fall,” Tremblay said.
For neighbours of the latest fire, the danger strikes too close to home. It’s the second meter fire within a few blocks.
“To be perfectly honest, it worries me. We had ours checked, and they turned our meter upside down because it was in trouble, in need of repair, but for the ones that have been checked and seemed okay, it worries me,” Flostrand said.
The problem has cost SaskPower a million dollars so far.
“They’re saying it’s going to be at SaskPower’s cost, but to be honest, by the time they do rate increases, we’re paying for it in the end anyways,” Flostrand said.
The company inspected 5,600 homes in the last month, and it’s hoping to inspect another 3,200 in the next two weeks.
It currently has 30 SaskPower employees and more than 30 additional contractors inspecting and repairing meters in southern Saskatchewan.
About 600 customers have called for an inspection and are still waiting for one, Tremblay said. “We target tomorrow end of day (Saturday) to have a visit to all of these customers and do repairs or a full inspection.”
The plan is to check every home in the Uplands, Normanview and Glencairn neighbourhoods, Tremblay said.
This is the eighth meter fire in Regina this summer.
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