UPDATE: Man badly burned after climbing electrical equipment at Armstrong substation

POWER WAS OUT FOR 7,700

VERNON – A large power outage yesterday evening in the North Okanagan was caused by a man climbing on electrical equipment at a B.C. Hydro substation in Armstrong.

B.C. Hydro spokesperson Jennifer Walker-Larsen says a member of the public entered the substation yard on Smith Drive last night, March 31, and climbed on some equipment, which started a small fire.

RCMP say a 25-year-old man suffered significant burns and was taken to Vernon Jubilee Hospital.

The substation is fenced and the man is not an employee, police say in a media release.

The outage cut power to just over 7,700 people in Armstrong, Spallumcheen, Vernon and Coldstream and was restored around midnight.

“I’d like to emphasize electricity is part of our daily lives and B.C. Hydro does have electrical equipment throughout neighbourhoods and communities all around the province,” Walker-Larsen says. “We’d ask people not to be complacent and not to forget electricity can be extremely dangerous.”

She says the fire was relatively small compared to what can happen at substations.

— This story was updated at 10:59 a.m., Friday, April 1, 2016 with information provided by RCMP.

To contact a reporter for this story, email Charlotte Helston or call 250-309-5230 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.

We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above.