Almost 1600 FortisAlberta customers in Didsbury and rural Olds lost power Saturday night due to a broken distribution line off Highway 2A, half a mile south of Olds.
The break was witnessed by county resident Jenny Baptist, who was driving east down Twp. Rd. 324 when she saw a flash at the top of a power pole.
“There was a bright light and a bang and sparks going everywhere,” Baptist said.
“I was on the phone with my mom and said, ‘Um, something's happening.' ”
Baptist called 911 and reported the incident, and emergency crews responded within minutes but were unable to immediately locate the broken line on or off the gravel road. It was Jenny's father Brian, who had driven up from Didsbury with wife Brenda after hearing about the incident from his daughter, who finally spotted the broken line curled over the bank of community mailboxes immediately south of the Olds College property.
The line break knocked out power for the east half of Didsbury from 9:12 p.m. to 9:50 p.m., said Fortis communications director Jennifer MacGowan.
“We switched what we could as quickly as possible to get the majority of customers back on as quickly as possible,” MacGowan said.
About 110 rural customers remained offline until 11:30 p.m., when power was restored.
“We believe, but we are not exactly sure, that it may have been a goose that caused it,” MacGowan said. “It's one of those fluke things that happen.”
Jenny Baptist confirmed that suspicion, saying the next day she drove by the site and saw a dead goose lying in a pool of water and “feathers everywhere.”
MacGowan said Fortis had installed bird markers on the line that came down.
“Bird markers are orange reflective markers, which make the line more visible to birds and help reduce collisions between 60 and 90 per cent,” she said. “In this case, the power went off later in the evening when it was dark so the goose would not have seen the marker.”
