An unspecified "technical issue" is being blamed after a number of police and fire department phone lines lost service across Metro Vancouver Thursday.

The problem only affected non-emergency numbers and was resolved about 40 minutes after it was first reported on Twitter by E-Comm, B.C.'s biggest emergency call centre.

During the outage, E-Comm urged anyone trying to contact police or firefighters to avoid tying up 911 lines unless they were facing an actual emergency.

More than a dozen non-emergency lines were affected, including phone numbers for the Vancouver Police Department, Abbotsford Police Department and Delta Police Department, as well as a number of RCMP detachments across the region.

Jody Robertson, executive director of communications for E-Comm, told CTV News that staff activated back-up lines that allowed them to restore service to all affected departments quickly.

"There is no impact to the public, except it might be a little busier than usual and we thank them for their patience," Robertson said in an email Thursday afternoon.

The cause of the outage hasn't been determined, but Robertson said Telus and E-Comm's technical staff are both investigating it as "a high priority."

Generally, non-emergency lines are used to report incidents that don't require an immediate police, firefighter or paramedic response.

That can include crimes such as thefts and frauds when the suspect is long gone, or to complain about a noisy house party.

The full list of affected police and fire departments includes:

  • Abbotsford Police Department
  • Abbotsford Fire Rescue Services
  • Burnaby RCMP
  • Coquitlam Fire & Rescue
  • Delta Police Department
  • Delta Fire & Emergency Services
  • New Westminster Police Department
  • New Westminster Fire & Rescue Services
  • Port Moody Police Department
  • Port Moody Fire Rescue
  • Richmond RCMP
  • Richmond Fire-Rescue
  • Ridge Meadows RCMP
  • RCMP locations on Sunshine Coast, Squamish and Whistler
  • Vancouver Police Department
  • Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services
  • West Vancouver Police Department