By Sheldon Spackman

Power Restored

City crews restore power following three outages in 15 hours

May 4, 2020 | 4:31 PM

Two pole fires and a failed transformer are to blame for three separate power outages in Red Deer Sunday night and Monday morning.

Officials with the City’s Electric, Light and Power (EL&P) department say the first one was a pole fire at Edgar Industrial Crescent that began on Sunday at 6:55 p.m. – affecting an estimated 400 commercial and industrial customers in the Queen’s Business Park and Burnt Lake areas.

Roughly 200 customers had their power restored by 9:00 p.m. and another 160 customers by 11:00 p.m. with the crew completing replacement of the damaged pole and restoring power to the remaining customers on Edgar Industrial Crescent by 4:10 a.m. Monday.

Soon after the first pole fire, a second one began Sunday night around 7:00 p.m. near the intersection of Gaetz Avenue and 37 Street.

City officials say a few hundred mostly residential customers experienced some interruption of power service between 7:30-10:00 p.m. as crews worked to isolate the problem and get power on to everyone else.

Last seen March 31

Missing: Eugenie Headman, 66, of Maskwacis

7h ago

mayor hopes to meet housing minister this month

Alberta demands Ottawa back off on housing funding stripped from Red Deer

Apr 02, 2026

Last seen Jan. 15

Missing: Courtney Cattleman, 17, of Maskwacis

Apr 02, 2026

About 20 customers in the vicinity of 37 Street & Gaetz Avenue were said to be impacted for the duration, while crews completed replacement of the damaged pole and all power restored by 2:00 a.m. on Monday.

Officials say a third outage in the Southbrook neighbourhood Monday morning was the result of a failed transformer. What caused it to fail has yet to be determined.

EL&P is expected to continue monitoring system conditions in the area to see if anything specific can be established.

That outage began around 1:30 a.m., with an estimated 120 residential customers impacted.

By 4:30 a.m., as many as 1,000 customers on the same feeder (main line) would have experienced a very brief flicker lasting a few seconds due to work on the line, according to City officials.

Approximately 80 of the 120 customers affected had power restored by 7:50 a.m., with another 25 customers having their power restored by 8:55 a.m., and the remaining customers having their power restored shortly before 10:00 a.m. on Monday.

While pole fires this time of year are not unique, three unrelated outages at roughly the same time in different areas of the city is unusual, according to City officials.

“Seasonal weather changes can create a build-up of dust and debris on power poles,” explains Jim Jorgensen, EL&P manager for the City of Red Deer, in a statement provided to rdnewsNOW. “When light rain mixes with this build-up, electricity is able to travel to the wooden pole and create enough heat to start a fire.”

“As with many issues that arise on The City’s electrical system, customers are often the first to notice trouble,” adds Jorgensen. “Safety is always the priority, so never go near fallen lines or damaged electrical equipment. If you see trouble, call us immediately at 403-342-8274 or after hours at 403-348-7500; we are on-call 24/7 and will respond as quickly as we can.”