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Prince George, northern B.C. power outage caused by suspected lightning strike

Almost entire city of Prince George, other communities are in the dark
Kyle Balzer
Kyle Balzer

11:30 p.m.

Looks like power has been restored to all of Prince George this evening (Sept. 11).

Thousands of homes in the city were left in the dark for roughly 90 minutes after a suspected lightning strike caused a massive outage across northern B.C.

Under 100 B.C. Hydro customers in the region are still in the dark.

The strike caused several transmission circuit failures in places like Fort St. John, Terrace, Burns Lake, and Quesnel.

PrinceGeorgeMatters will have more information as it becomes available tomorrow morning (Sept. 12).

10:15 p.m.

B.C. Hydro says tonight's power outage across northern B.C. was caused by a suspected lightning strike.

More than 124,000 B.C. Hydro are still without power across the region due to the transmission circuit failure.

Most power in Prince George, according to our readers, has been restored.

The service says power is expected to be fully restored by 12:30 a.m. (Sept. 12).

9 p.m.

A massive power outage has taken place across Prince George and in other regional communities.

As of 9 p.m. this evening (Sept. 11), B.C. Hydro has reported over 100,000 of its northern B.C. customers in the dark due to a transmission circuit failure, while some are still under investigation.

Readers had noticed a large fireball in the sky east of the city, but Prince George Fire Rescue tells PrinceGeorgeMatters the flames are out of the Husky Refinery conducting stack burns 'as they regularly do on and off again.'

Canfor also confirms with our newsroom that none of the Prince George mills are on fire.

Readers are telling us that power is also out in the following areas:

  • Fort St. John (9,600+)
  • Dawson Creek (5,300+)
  • Mackenzie (2,300+)
  • Burns Lake (4,000+)
  • Terrace (10,000+)
  • Fort St. James (2,500+)

"Crews are investigating and we will begin restoration efforts as soon as possible," reads a statement from B.C. Hydro. "Thank you for your patience. We will continue to provide updates as soon as they become available."