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Birds KO BC Hydro twice in one day in Chilliwack

Birds contacting power lines blamed for two outages that left more than 2,875 without electricity for nearly two hours.

Birds are blamed for two hydro outages in Chilliwack Thursday - one in the morning and another in the evening - that left more than 2,875 people without electricity for nearly two hours.

"It happens," a BC Hydro spokesman said Friday. "It's not something we see all the time, but it happens."

A bird contacting a power line or a transformer in the Coote Street area at 5:46 a.m. knocked out power for about two hours for about five customers. Power was restored at 7:04 a.m.

But the second outage, again caused by a bird tripping a fuse, knocked out power to about 2,900 customers in two areas near downtown Chilliwack from 7:30 p.m. to about 9:15 p.m.

Most of the affected customers were in the area west of Cook Street to Fernway Avenue and from Henley Avenue south to Reece Avenue.