A group of untethered balloons that ended up getting caught in overhead power lines caused an outage last night that briefly plunged downtown Victoria into darkness.
More than 5,000 residents and businesses were without power Wednesday at around 4:00 p.m., after helium balloons came into contact with power lines, causing the outage.
B.C. Hydro untangled the rogue balloons and restored power at around 5:45 p.m. — but this isn’t the first time a balloon has been apprehended for cutting off power.
Balloons
Last year, rogue balloons were responsible for 30 outages affecting tens of thousands of people across the province.
B.C. Hydro is asking the public to hang on to their balloons to prevent not only outages, but serious injuries and major damage to electrical infrastructure.
Today they released some safety tips to prevent future incidents including:
- watching overhead for powerlines
- weighing individual balloons to keep them from escaping
- avoiding latex and metallic streamers which conduct electricity
- properly disposing of balloons
If you see any object stuck in a power line, call B.C. Hydro at 1-800-224-9376.
With files from Christine van Reeuwyk
