Blustery winds made for a busy day for the Quesnel Fire Department, which responded to 12 calls over about two and a half hours.
Fire Chief Ron Richert says the department prioritized calls involving fires as crews worked through the busy period.
One incident was reported near the Quesnel SPCA, where fire crews arrived within about 10 minutes.
“We had that one under control fairly quickly,” says Richert. “We believe it was a campfire that was in the forested area that had gotten away because of the wind and migrated on the ground a bit.”
Crews also responded to a grass fire near Lakeview Secondary School, which Richert says was caused by a tree falling onto a power line.
Firefighters were able to quickly bring that fire under control, preventing it from becoming a threat to nearby residences or structures.
Richert says the department had enough personnel, equipment, and trucks to prioritize and respond to all 12 calls.
According to BC Hydro’s outage map, more than 68,554 customers were without power across the Central Interior and Cariboo regions during Wednesday’s windstorm, with outages stretching from the South Cariboo to Prince George.
In Quesnel, just over 3,300 customers were affected, while 100 Mile House had just over 2,500 customers affected. Williams Lake saw 4,972 customers without power.
BC Hydro reported that about 440 customers in the region remained without power as of 11:30 a.m. Nov. 12.
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