Mounties are investigating after several power poles were cut down with a chainsaw overnight in Surrey, leaving thousands of people without electricity.
BC Hydro said four poles carrying a 60-kilovolt line through the Green Timbers neighbourhood were downed around 1 a.m., triggering an outage for about 6,000 customers in Whalley.
The vandalism also left a potentially deadly hazard in the area.
“In addition to the transmission line carrying 60,000 volts, these poles carry two sets of high-voltage distribution circuits, each carrying 25,000 volts,” BC Hydro said in a statement.
“This could have injured or killed a member of the public or our crews as BC Hydro worked to make repairs.”
Few other details have been confirmed, including how many people may have been involved in the vandalism.
BC Hydro said power was restored by around 4 a.m. after crews switched the affected customers to a different distribution circuit.
A crew of more than dozen people is working to replace the damaged poles and transfer conductors and circuits to them, the utility provider added. Work is expected to be finished on Wednesday.
