Electrical Fire Knocks Out Power in Downtown Vancouver

by mtippett | July 14, 2008 at 02:13 pm | 23903 views | 58 comments | 109 recommendations

Electrical Fire Knocks Out Part of Vancouver's Power

This is apparently where the fire broke out.

We welcome more information about the power outage which struck downtown Vancouver Monday morning. Please add your footage and comments below.

UPDATE 6:55 PST:

About 1,500 customers are still without power, down from 4,500 this afternoon at the peak of the blackout. Police are still encouraging motorists to avoid the downtown area.

The BC Hydro website gives 11 p.m., July 15 as an estimate for power restoration.

The 5 and 6 downtown bus routes appear to be the most impacted by the blackout. SkyTrain and SeaBus service is still operational.

UPDATE 5:15 PST:

Power is still out, and crews are waiting until air quality at the site of this morning's explosion improves before moving in and assessing damage.

Hundreds of Internet servers went down at the Harbour Centre, causing disruptions for companies far beyond Vancouver. To read more about the impact of the blackout, check out this related article.

UPDATE 3:00 PST:

Firefighters say the vault where the explosion occurred is still dangerous due to poor air quality, so restoring power will likely take much longer than originally anticipated. It may be several hours before hydro crews can even assess the damage, let alone fix it.

The explosion took place in an underground vault beneath the 500-block of Richards Street.

Deputy Chief Tom McEwen said at 2 p.m. today that officials recently took an air sample underground where the fire occurred and concluded the air quality is still not sufficient for Hydro crews -- even with respirators -- to go inside.

That means it could be a long time before power is restored to the many office buildings

"This could go until tomorrow," said McEwen. "I wouldn't rule that out."

__________

UPDATE 2:15 PST:

A circuit fire has caused severe power outages in Vancouver's downtown business core, leaving more than 4,500 without power.

Street lights are down, shops have closed, and some are reportedly trapped in elevators in buildings without power. Police say the power outage affects the area between Beatty and Burrard, from Hastings to Robson.

Traffic officers have been dispatched to keep the situation under control, and the Marble Arch Hotel has been evacuated, according to local news sources.

Many stores in the Granville Street commercial area have closed, but some are using flashlights.

BC Hydro estimates that power should be restored by 3:00 p.m. The Vancouver Police strongly suggest people stay away from the downtown core.

According to local news:

* Waterfront Station was evacuated, but SkyTrain and SeaBus still operational
* Downtown bus service delayed due to necessary reroutes
* City traffic gridlocked due to traffic light outages
* West Coast Express will likely be affected if power remains out

Rachel Nixon filed this voice report:

"This is Rachel Nixon. I'm calling on behalf of the NowPublic team about the Vancouver fires. It's Monday, the 14th of July. As previously reported on NowPublic there are severe power outages in Downtown Vancouver because of electrical fires. The BC Hydro website is talking about more than 1,000 clients affected around the Waterfront area of Vancouver, in Gastown and also the Seymour Street area. I went down the street and saw smoke billowing from one hole on Richards Street where police had cordoned it off and were re-directing traffic. BC Hydro says it could be a few hours before the power comes back on. This is Rachel Nixon reporting for NowPublic."

recommend Add a comment

Rob Walker

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 09:37 on July 14th, 2008

Looks like you guys are stuck outside for the time being!

power outages forced the evacuation of students from a downtown school...

the street lights in downtown vancouver. smoke is reportedly billowing in the distance...

there seems to some kind of brown out in downtown vancouver.

Timbits93 (not verified)

at 13:10 on July 14th, 2008

I was in an elevator at the time at Granville Square...

Wasn't a pleasant experience but got out in 45 minutes -_-

Back at home though.

Never saw the smoke though since we probably never bothered looking at it.

kate

at 09:51 on July 14th, 2008

Fire underground? That sounds really ominous. We have power here on the west side of the city...

Alfred Hermida

at 09:53 on July 14th, 2008

BC Hydro has a list of the power outages in downtown Vancouver:

http://www.bchydro.com/outages/orsTableView.jsp

The outages seem to be concentrated in around Gastown and nearby streets. BC Hydro says some of the outages are due to a cable fault, but most are "under investigation" at the moment.

Rob Walker

flagged this story as News Wanted

at 10:05 on July 14th, 2008

I think this is an important story and would benefit from other NowPublic contributors working on it. I've flagged it as News Wanted and invite others in relevant locations to look for more evidence.

Tanasha

at 10:53 on July 14th, 2008

I live there right by there. That's not good. I wonder which building it was - does anybody know?

Tanasha

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 10:54 on July 14th, 2008

mtippett, I like this story. It's good stuff.

yuls.source

at 11:22 on July 14th, 2008

Update from News 1130:

About 4,500 BC Hydro customers are without power in the area stretching from Beatty to Burrard and Hastings to Robson, roughly between Canada Place and Gastown. Numerous traffic lights are also out, and the outage has left a number buildings without electricity.

There are reports of a few people trapped in elevators. Waterfront Station has been evacuated, but SkyTrain and SeaBus passengers are being allowed in, as both services are still running. Bus service is being disrupted due to traffic lights not working at many intersections.

juiceycakes (not verified)

at 11:53 on July 14th, 2008

http://www.peer1.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=50&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

many hosting clients with this particular hosting provider in the harbour centre are affected as backup generators, redundant power didn't kick in.

i'm sure others in the same building are having issues as well.

goodluck fellow support personnelle!

JeffHuang

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 11:55 on July 14th, 2008

mtippett, I like this story. It's good stuff.

rpshen

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 11:58 on July 14th, 2008

mtippett, I like this story. It's good stuff. Thank you for getting this story out so quickly!

Jay Robinson (not verified)

at 12:03 on July 14th, 2008

Scary - I hope everyone is OK. Unfortuantely could be a sign of things to come with higher and higher densities of population in a smaller area the buffer room of power abilities shrinks. The IT industry consumes a good portion of energy so it's typically not a great place for new high demand IT to be in high density areas. If anyone needs help getting online we might be able to help. I work at a data center and infrastructure provider in the Okanagan - Kelowna, BC to be exact. Some of our advantages are power availability and no risk to natural disasters like earthquakes. Anyhow my heart goes out to all those who are stuck.... on the opposite side if this wasn't a reality I wouldn't have a job. Look me up or call me if you want some advice or options http://www.rackforce.com or 866-468-1158.

Cheers,

Jay Robinson

Steve Kim (not verified)

at 12:06 on July 14th, 2008

I just went outside to take a look around and so far traffic seems to be moving along smoothly, although you can see some tempers starting to rise at intersections. I also heard that Scotia Tower is closed and office people are going home.

Although initial reports state a fire as the cause, there have been other incidents in cities across North America where the root cause was triggerd by a cyber intruder. Check out this link on youtube.com from CNN.com http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJyWngDco3g. It shows a staged cyber attack on an electric generator... you can see smoke start to billow out as well.

Now the above is just a staged example and can seem pretty far-fetched, but in January of this year, the CIA admitted that some power outages were caused by cyber intruders. See the story here at InformationWeek.com. http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=205901631.

Interesting to see the economic cost of this...

Scrivener

at 20:16 on July 14th, 2008

Well, now the Canadian government has good reason to investigate who's been hacking into Vancouver-based web sites lately and who or what would have a motive to do so... if only to clear the air and remove any suspicion that these fires could have a cyber-genesis.

My heart goes out to those who are suffering.

This thread has given me the willies. God bless you all.

julianw

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 12:07 on July 14th, 2008

Now Public employees made a daring escape from the downtown anarchy.

Rachel Nixon

at 12:20 on July 14th, 2008

The traffic lights were out at several places downtown, so drivers were taking their chances and moving across intersections as and when they could. All seemed pretty orderly at various intersections along Dunsmuir around 11.30 am, but I was surprised there were no police dispatched at that stage to direct traffic.

carolbrowne

at 12:30 on July 14th, 2008

I was sent home around 11:00 - I work in the building next to Holt Renfrew. They told us it will probably take about 3 hours or longer to get the power back.

Rachel Nixon

at 12:37 on July 14th, 2008

Thank you for the photos, carolbrowne.

carolbrowne

at 12:40 on July 14th, 2008

No problem! I'm glad I had somewhere to post them where they'd get seen and be useful.

Mo Gosh (not verified)

at 12:35 on July 14th, 2008

SFU Harbour Centre lost power mid-morning and at noon police were recommending that people evacuate the building (though when I left there were still many people who looked like they intended to stay). Lots of black smoke billowed out of the Marble Arch Hotel at around 11 a.m.

Waterfront Station at noon: No lights in main building, but fans operating in Seabus skywalk (thank goodness, because it was getting warm in there), and seabus operating as usual.

Don Bain (not verified)

at 12:43 on July 14th, 2008

We watched smoke billow out of exhaust fans on the south side of Harbour Centre this morning about 10:30. A lot of people were watching this blue smoke and around wondering what the heck was going on!

mchawk

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 12:57 on July 14th, 2008

mtippett, I like this story. It's good stuff.

politisite

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 13:25 on July 14th, 2008

mtippett, I like this story. It's good stuff. Ecellent on the spot reporting. Thanks Rachel for the onsite voice report. Mr. Tippett gives us an example of how to report from our locality. I hope we all focus on are areas of experitise and from our local areas. I remember the fire that was in NE Columbia where my photo journalist gor there during the fire and took extensive photos the following day. The local news companies wanted to purchase our footage. We kept back a few for NowPublic. We also covered the Tornadoes as well.

I think this is where we will shine. Thanks for this story, I didn't know about until I read this article.

Al Milliron, Politisite.com

Gharlay

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 13:13 on July 14th, 2008

mtippett, I like this story. It's good stuff.

kate

at 13:21 on July 14th, 2008

That's a lot of smoke! Great pictures!

Rob Peters

at 13:33 on July 14th, 2008

I stopped by a Granville store on my way home, not realizing it was affected by the power outage. I said I'd come back when the power came on, but the owner insisted I stay and gave me a flashlight tour of the store. It was a little strange, but I have to give it to him for being resourceful.

Rachel Nixon

at 13:48 on July 14th, 2008

It looks like this could go on for longer than we first thought. The Vancouver Sun is reporting that BC Hydro crews have not yet been able to investigate the area affected by the fire.

Vancouver firefighters says the area around the underground fire that shut down power to large swaths of the downtown core is still so dangerous that it could be several hours before Hydro crews have a chance to look at the problem up close.

Deputy Chief Tom McEwen said at 2 p.m. today that officials recently took an air sample underground where the fire occurred and concluded the air quality is still not sufficient for Hydro crews -- even with respirators -- to go inside.

That means it could be a long time before power is restored to the many office buildings downtown that lost power around 9:30 a.m.

"This could go until tomorrow," said McEwen. "I wouldn't rule that out."

Earlier in the day, BC Hydro said it hoped to have the power restored in a couple of hours.

However, shortly after 2 p.m., Hydro spokeswoman Susan Danard said that estimate is no longer realistic.

"Obviously it's a more serious outage than we had hoped and the repair is going to take some time," she said. "I don't have a new estimated restoration time but it's safe to say we are looking at a fairly significant repair job."

Rachel Nixon

at 13:55 on July 14th, 2008

Here's a link to the Translink site with information about bus, Skytrain and SeaBus travel changes. The transit authority says some buses are being rerouted and so trolley buses may have to deviate from normal routes.

The Skytrain is running normally using backup power. There is emergency lighting in the waterfront Station and SeaBus South terminal, but the SeaBus is operating normally.