What caused gas outage?
Photo: Fortis
Fortis continues to work on a gas outage affecting more than 6,200.
UPDATE 3:10 p.m.
Those impacted by a natural gas outage in Lake Country and north Kelowna are being asked to ensure crews have clear access to gas meters as efforts continue to restore service.
In an update Thursday afternoon, FortisBC said crews have been brought in from across B.C. to help with the situation with about 60 staff in the field right now.
But the utility still won’t say what caused the outage, only that “early information indicates [it] originated within our system.”
“Our focus continues to be to restore service to customers,” said the company in a statement.
FortisBC says it must manually shut off all the gas meters in the affected area, a process that should be complete by 6 p.m.
“Restoration of gas services is a multi-step process and involves visiting every property twice, first to turn off gas as the meter and again to relight each customer’s appliances once the gas system is back in operation,” the company said.
“Customers can support the restoration efforts and help avoid delays but ensuring crews have clear access to your gas meters. This is important so they can complete the shut off process as quickly as possible.”
6,200 properties remain without natural gas service in the outage area.
Central Okanagan Emergency Operations said a warming centre remains open at the Oyama Community Club, 15710 Oyama Road. Residents are being told to not use outdoor equipment like BBQs to heat their homes. It can cause carbon monoxide poisoning or fire.
UPDATE 1:10 p.m.
Lake Country Mayor Blair Ireland says FortisBC has offered assurances that all hands are on deck as they address the on the natural gas outage in his community, but it’s a complex and time-consuming restoration process.
“We only know what they’re telling us,” Ireland said. “They’ve shut down about 1,500 meters and will have everyone turned off by 6 p.m. After that, they’ll begin re-pressurizing, which will take about six hours before service can start coming back on.”
Roughly 6,200 customers are affected, and Ireland stressed that restoring gas service is far more involved than a typical power outage.
“It’s a big job,” he said. “They actually have to go to people’s homes and help relight appliances that run on gas, like furnaces, stoves, hot water heaters. Some will come back on automatically, but many won’t. It’s a herculean effort.”
Ireland said he’s been informed by Fortis that there are 150 technicians in the field, but the process will still take time due to safety requirements.
The cause of the outage remains unclear. Ireland said the damage appears more significant than a typical line strike.
“If you disrupt a gas line, which does happen, this usually isn’t the result,” he said. “We’re still waiting for Fortis to tell us exactly what happened, but clearly this is a major issue affecting the whole community.”
Ireland added the District of Lake Country has opened a warming centre as a precaution, though demand so far has been low.
“I’m one of those customers too,” he said. “It’s a cold shower day today, and the house is a little cooler.”
ORIGINAL 10:35 a.m.
About 6,200 homes in Lake Country and North Kelowna remain without natural gas, and FortisBC says full restoration of service isn’t expected until Sunday.
That restoration timeline and lack of information of the cause of the outage are causing community frustration.
“Before gas service can be restored, all gas meters in the affected area must be shut off. Technicians are visiting each home and business to turn off gas service at the meter. We expect all shutdowns to be completed by this evening,” Fortis said in a Thursday morning update.
“Once all meters are shut off, crews will begin adding gas back into the system, a process known as pressurizing, which is expected to take approximately three hours.”
Fortis representatives said the pressurizing step must be completed before gas service can safely be restored to individual customers.
“As soon as the system is safely back at full operating pressure, crews will begin revisiting each home and business to turn gas back on at the meter and relight appliances. We expect the relight process to begin this evening.
“While restoration will take time due to the number of affected customers, we currently anticipate the majority of customers will have service restored by Sunday,” the statement said.
The gas company said crews from other communities are supporting service restoration but the pace of the repair work is of great concern to people living in the area.
Lake Country resident Greg Reimer is among those whose are frustrated by the process.
“I’m extremely unhappy with the outage and frustrated with the communication,” Reimer said.
“I appreciate it’s a top priority for FortisBC but they need to bring in all hands on deck from across the province to solve this problem. Three days for restoration is not sufficient.”
Reimer said the bigger problem is getting to the bottom of the underlying issue.
“If this happened in the middle of winter, we’d have a real big problem,” he said.
“Fortis needs to answer these questions and be accountable for it.”
The utility has so far refused to disclose the cause of the outage, saying it is “under review” and that they are focusing on restoration of services.
