dailynewsnblog
BC Hydro says major transmission lines are coated with ash and smoke from the wildfires burning near Clinton, B.C., which is causing flickering lights and power interruptions across the province.
“Part of the backbone of the grid is near where there’s a lot of fire activity in the Southern Interior,” Bob Gammer, BC Hydro community relations coordinator, told CKPG News.
“And smoke and ash is getting on some of our largest power lines down in the Southern Interior. That’s what’s leading to this flickering of the lights.”
Gammer said that due to the wildfire activity near the power lines, it’s not safe for crews to get in there and do anything with soot and ash buildup.
Get daily National news
Get daily Canada news delivered to your inbox so you’ll never miss the day’s top stories.
“Often we build redundancy into the hydro system for that very reason, so we can do workarounds,” he added.
“But in this case, this is so central to the whole operation of the grid, there really isn’t a suitable workaround in this case for our large 500,000-volt transmission lines.”
Three wildfires are burning in the region near Clinton and numerous evacuation orders and alerts have been issued.
On Friday, the entire Village of Clinton was placed under an evacuation order after the Pear Lake fire made a rapid push toward the community.
The three wildfires, known as the Big Bar complex, have destroyed at least 20 structures in the Big Bar Lake area, wildfire officials confirmed on Thursday.
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
