One bird caused a massive power outage in Metro Vancouver affecting thousands of BC Hydro customers on Thursday, Sept. 5.
BC Hydro spokesperson Mora Scott told V.I.A. the power was out between 5:30 p.m. and 8 p.m., and impacted 17,363 customers in parts of Vancouver and Burnaby.
"It was caused by the bird and impacted the customers that are served by our Mainwaring substation in Vancouver," she said. "The substation serves some customers in Vancouver and Burnaby."
Scott said outages like this are not common but happen occasionally. Trees and inclement cause the lion's share of outages.
Outages caused by birds and animals account for approximately 10 per cent of outages, with birds, squirrels and rodents accounting for most of them. However, they aren't the only critters causing electrical chaos.
Scott noted that other animals, including beavers and bears, have caused past outages.
In 2020, beavers in Dawson Creek and Prince George caused over 700 customer outages when large branches from their dam construction fell into power lines. The same year, a bear outside of Nakusp climbed a cherry tree, breaking several branches. The branches fell on electrical equipment and caused a power outage.
Numerous people took to social media to voice frustration during the power outage.
Nathanial Lamb joked on X, formerly Twitter, "You guys aren’t big football fans huh?"
User Amanda said, "It’s so hot at home, we need to be able to turn on our fans/air conditioners. It’s been 2 hours now."
George Chow commented: "This is the third outage of the year. 2024 has been the worse for reliability in my 20 [plus] years here."
To report a power outage, call 1-800-BCHYDRO (1-800-224-9376) or *HYDRO (*49376) on your mobile or report it online.
Check the BC Hydro power outage map for updates.
