A severe thunderstorm Monday evening (July 30) dropped water pumping capacity in two Olds pumping stations and sparked a fire in one.
According to a Town of Olds notice, "there was a critical failure of both diesel generators" resulting in the drop in water pressure.
Sirens could be heard as emergency crews raced to deal with the pump stations and with a barn fire that broke out at the same time.
As of July 31, the north pumping station was reported to to be running at full capacity again. However, the south station was only running at 50 per cent of capacity.
"Special thanks to Fortis(Alberta) and all emergency services crews for getting up back up and running so quickly," the Town notice says.
FortisAlberta communications advisor Kevin Haslbeck says lighting hit the company's south power station in Olds, knocking out power to 1,643 customers at 7:22 p.m.
"Lightning struck our equipment and a wire was down," he says.
Haslbeck says by 9:08 p.m., power was restored to 1,630 customers. It came back on for the remaining 23 customers at 11:38 p.m.
