Around 6,200 FortisBC customers are without natural gas Thursday, and many may not have their service restored until Sunday or later, the company says.
According to Emergency Info BC, the disruption covers parts of Lake Country, Kelowna, and the Okanagan Indian Band (Duck Lake).
Fortis says restoring service will involve several steps.
“Right now, [crews] are turning gas off at the meters,” Lauren Beckett, corporate communications advisor, told 1130 NewsRadio shortly before 2 p.m.
“That’s part of the restoration process. Once all the gas meters are off, then they will be able to repressurize the gas line. That can take about two to three hours. And then after that, they will start re-lights for customers as well. So they’ll return back to each home and they’ll re-light everyone’s appliances.”
Beckett says the cause of the disruption is unclear.
“Early information indicates that the outage originated within our system,” she said.
According to a service notice on the company’s website, most re-lights will begin Thursday evening, and the majority of customers will have service restored by Sunday.
It isn’t clear when all customers will have their service restored, Beckett says.
Many Okanagan residents rely on natural gas for heating. The temperature around Kelowna is expected to dip to close to freezing Thursday evening, and Emergency Info BC says a warming station has been set up at the Oyama Community Club in Lake County.