A major power outage knocked out power in most corners of the eastern Fraser Valley Wednesday afternoon, including Chilliwack.
BC Hydro said more than 55,000 households were affected from Abbotsford to Boston Bar.
The incident emptied shopping malls and businesses, and created traffic jams at most Chilliwack intersections as the four-way stop procedure went into effect, with mixed success.
Chilliwack firefighters responded to multiple false alarms.
The power, which went out shortly after 1:30 p.m. was out for nearly two hours before it was restored by switching over to other circuits.
BC Hydro spokesperson Simi Heer said they initially thought the outage was caused by "a fault on one of the transmission lines" causing a circuit to go out of service.
“However, it’s looking like equipment within a substation in Chilliwack operated in an abnormal way and caused the circuit to go out,” she said.
“As a safety precaution, circuits will de-energize or go out of service if there is some sort of inexplicable abnormality on the system.”
BC Hydro’s investigation continues.
