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By Alessia Proietti

Cause: Poor weather conditions

Two simultaneously yet unrelated power outages in Red Deer Sunday

Mar 21, 2022 | 4:21 PM

Two simultaneous yet unrelated power outages happened in Red Deer on Sunday affecting over 1,000 customers.

Jim Jorgensen, Utilities Manager for the City of Red Deer, classified the events as being both weather related, following a weather warning on Sunday of heavy snow mixed with freezing rain.

READ: Snowfall warning issued for Red Deer and area

The first incident, he confirms, took place at 7:35 a.m. as a tree fell on an electricity line at Kerry Wood Nature Centre on the east side of the city. It affected roughly 1,000 customers in portions of Clearview Market, Clearview Ridge, and Rosedale, among potential others.

At 8:22 a.m., power was restored to approximately half of those residents, with power almost fully restored by 8:40 a.m.

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Those with immediate impact, Kerry Wood Nature Centre, Gateway Christian School, and Parkland School, did not receive power back until 12:15 p.m. when the tree was removed and the line was fixed.

“We do have a program where we trim branches and everything so we maintain industry standard clearance from the actual conductor but when you get heavy wet snow and high winds, it can stress trees out and cause more load on them,” said Jorgensen.

The second incident began at 9:43 a.m. when a pole caught on fire at Edgar Industrial Crescent. The incident is fairly common this time of year, according to Jorgensen, when salt, sand and other road debris make their way onto wood electrical poles during wet weather conditions, causing a flow in electricity.

Felt by an estimated few hundred residents in mainly the Edgar Industrial area, he confirms that power was restored for almost all affected by 11:40 a.m. The City notified locals via updates on Twitter that Edgar Industrial Place and Edgar Industrial Circle would be the remaining areas without power as the problem continued to be worked on.

Rebuilding a portion of the electricity line and the pole itself, the entire area was restored at 5:30 p.m., says Jorgensen.

As two separate crews were sent, one for each outage, Jorgensen estimated between eight to ten City employees completed the job.

As a public safety reminder, Jorgensen advises residents to stay away from downed power lines.

“Assume that they’re energized and we’ll make sure we get out there 24/7. We’re on call, we’ll respond immediately,” he said.

If you see a downed power line, call 403-342-8274. Outside of business hours, call 403-348-5700.