Half of Blumenort lost power Thursday night after a big bang resounded through the empty streets. It has since been determined that the sound was caused by a hydro pole igniting.

Manitoba Hydro Spokesperson Bruce Owen says both the initial noise and the corresponding outage was caused by the short-circuiting of a hydro pole transformer. 

At 10:20 PM the Steinbach Fire Department was called to the scene. However, Deputy Chief Ron Chausse says the blaze burned itself out and did not require crews to take action.

As a result of this incident, Owen says about half of the community was without power for an hour and a half. Those homes that were nearer to the affected pole, however, only had power fully restored by 5 AM. 

Though it seems like an unusual occurrence, Owen indicates that these kinds of hydro pole fires are not altogether uncommon.

“During the winter months there’s a lot of grit blowing off of the fields,” he explains Owen, “when you have moist conditions because the snow is melting, that can combine with the grit, find its way into cracks in the insulator, and cause a short circuit.”

When a short circuit occurs, Owen notes that the electricity wants to find the quickest possible route to the ground, which inevitably results in the top of the pole catching fire.

Owen stresses that a damaged pole like this is extremely dangerous because the wires can still be live. He encourages people to stay as far away from these kinds of sites as possible. “It’s a 911, situation,” he states, “a public safety issue.”

Manitoba Hydro workers have since visited the scene and replaced the damaged pole.