A lightning strike near Williams Lake Tuesday evening caused a fire in a hydro transformer.
Residents in the vicinity of the 2200 block of Fox Mountain Road and the 600 block of Mikalusik Road were without power for a few hours.
Wildwood Volunteer Fire Dept. deputy chief Sabrina Dyck said they received a call about the fire around 6:52 p.m. and responded with engine 11, tender 13 and seven firefighters.
“We basically arrived and waited for BC Hydro to attend and disconnect the hydro before we could put out the fire,” Dyck said, adding department members were grateful for the heavy rain that was falling because it had been fairly dry a few days before.
“The transformer itself was on fire, but because of the rain I wasn’t too concerned about the threat of a forest fire. We did have a lot of concerned people driving by though because of the 2017 wildfires.”
The crew returned to the hall just after 9 p.m.
Tuesday’s storm was part of a system that swept across the B.C. Interior bringing with it more than 10,000 lightning strikes.
Did you hear thunder last night? There were over 10, 000 lightning strikes over southern B.C. last night âš¡ #BCstorm #Boom pic.twitter.com/XXrV1mJCOF
— ECCC Weather British Columbia (@ECCCWeatherBC) September 4, 2019
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