An equipment failure left 2,600 Fernie residents without power this afternoon.
BC Hydro said that one of their two main feeders serving customers in Fernie, went down just before 3 p.m. as a result of an equipment failure, leaving half the town without power.
Most of the residences had power restored by 4:45 p.m. but residents of 70 houses had to wait for a pole to be replaced, meaning they will probably remain without power until the early hours of the morning.
“It was a fairly short outage for most customers,” said a BC Hydro spokesman. “Customers should take this as a good reminder, now that we are getting into storm season, to have an emergency kit ready, including a battery operated radio, a flashlight and blankets.”