TELUS plans outages to repair damage to its network from three wildfires in the southern interior. TELUS is advising customers of upcoming outages in some areas of the Southern Interior starting late Saturday as crews work to restore damage from the wildfires. Outages will affect Keremeos, Lytton, Spences Bridge, Yale, Boston Bar, Fraser Acres and Spuzzum. Repairs are tentatively scheduled to begin Saturday at 10:00 p.m. and continue until Sunday at 6 a.m. During the holiday customers will not be able to make calls to 911. TELUS TV, Internet, Landline and Wireless services will be offline. TELUS says it has conducted rigorous planning to expedite repairs and limit outage, and repairs will take a few hours if all goes as planned. The latest damage was caused by a fire that started along Highway 3 between Osoyoos and Cawston early Friday morning. “The Richter Mountain fire severely damaged overhead fiber. While it still works, there is a significant risk that this path will fail. “Similar to scheduled fire outbreaks, TELUS has assessed the risk and decided to repair this route while the affected area is in a controlled state or there is a risk of an uncontrolled outage if conditions shift,” notes a notice issued by the company. The Keremeos Creek fire destroyed approximately 2.5km of overhead fiber which will be replaced once safe access is allowed and the Fortis poles are replaced. The Nohomin Creek fire destroyed a section of overhead fiber that needs to be replaced along with about 60 poles that need repair. The estimated restoration time has not yet been determined because the area remains inaccessible. TELUS notes that while its network is designed to have redundant routes serving this area, these redundancies have been jeopardized by the following fires. Repairs are scheduled to take place during off-peak hours to minimize impact on residents and emergency services.
