Power restored for thousands affected by widespread outages in Halifax area amid heat wave

Power restored for thousands affected by widespread outages in Halifax area amid heat wave

Electricity has been restored for thousands of Nova Scotia Power customers after widespread outages

More than 44,000 Nova Scotia Power customers lost electricity on Friday evening amid high temperatures and humidity. Customers had their power restored between 11:30 p.m. and midnight.

According to the Nova Scotia Power outage map, customers went offline around 8 p.m., mostly affecting the communities of Spryfield, Armdale, Purcells Cove, Sambro, Prospect, Terence Bay, Hatchet Lake, Beechville, Clayton Park and parts of Bedford.

"We’re very sorry for the disruption to your Friday evening," Nova Scotia Power stated in a Facebook post on Friday.

In an email to CBC News on Friday night, Nova Scotia Power said the outage originated in its Lakeside substation "due to a failed piece of equipment."

Halifax Regional Fire and Emergency District Chief Robert Hebb said there was a fire at the substation.

"One of their components let go and caught fire, so that's led to the power outage," Hebb told CBC News.

In addition to fighting the fire, Hebb said firefighters responded to a number of technical rescues that involved people getting stuck on elevators in buildings that lost power.

"We ended up with three or four different locations where folks were trapped in the elevators temporarily," Hebb said.

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Hebb said crews were mindful of the weather conditions.

"Hydration is huge as it is for everybody else in these extremely high temperatures but especially for crews working in firefighting gear," he said.

Air conditioners not responsible for outages: NSP

In a response to customer questions on social media, Nova Scotia Power said the outage on Friday night was not a "load shedding event caused by high demand from air conditioners."

"We can confirm this is not related to grid load; it is strictly an isolated equipment issue at the substation."

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Anjuli Patil is a reporter with CBC Nova Scotia's digital team.