UPDATE:
Having your main source of heat cut off during the middle of a cold snap is never an ideal situation. But that’s what happened to several Kelowna residents in the Wilden area when the natural gas to their homes stopped flowing, affecting about 130 homes.
“They (Fortis BC) said there was a loss of pressure and they’re probably going to have to turn our gas off to the house,” resident Don Ferguson said.
Ferguson said Fortis BC crews told him the gas wouldn’t come back on until at least 6:30 a.m. on Tuesday.
Resident Craig Rostland was also without heat. He called Fortis BC and was asked to be patient.
“They said hang tough. We got people there. We’re working on it, we’ll solve the problem as soon as we can and then we’ll come around and re-light your pilots,” Rostland said.
Rostland, a certified home inspector, can afford to wait a little longer because his modern home is well insulated, but says an older residence without heat in the middle of a cold snap can be a disaster.
“When you think about parts of Kelowna with older homes, losing natural gas for four or five hours could mean burst pipes,” he said.
The natural gas was flowing again into the Wilden area early Tuesday morning.
Fortis BC has apologized for the problem, but is still trying to figure out what the problem was.
It says it wasn’t a gas leak but, rather, a blockage, and a bypass has been installed to deal with that blockage.
A crew member at the scene said the blockage was not caused by the cold.
ORIGINAL STORY:
It was a chilly night for some Kelowna residents after a natural gas outage during the coldest night of the year.
The outage affected Wilden Ridge. Fortis BC says it is still investigating the cause, but noted a bypass was created so gas service could be restored as quickly as possible. It’s believed approximately 160 homes were affected.
Fortis said relights started at 7 a.m., and will continue throughout the morning. Fortis also apologized to its customers who were affected by the outage.
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