A freak power outage shut down internet and e-mail service in downtown Whitehorse Monday afternoon.
The outage was caused by a mainline breaker that blew at around 3:15 p.m., said Jay Massie, a Yukon Electrical Company Limited spokesperson.
“Unfortunately it was right in the hub,” he said.
Lights went out along Main Street and Second and Third avenues, he said.
Yukon Electrical did not know what caused the fuse to blow.
It took 30 minutes for power to be restored, but that required shutting down an even larger stretch of downtown, said Massie.
The utility had to shut down a section of the power grid on one side of the blown fuse, while recharging it from the other side, he said.
The blackout hit Northwestel’s downtown office hard, and forced internet service down for several hours.
The outage turned off power in only parts of the building, so the officer’s back-up generators did not respond, said Sunny Patch, a Northwestel spokesperson.
The equipment was restored by 4 p.m. that day, said Patch. However, several sources reported internet malfunctions until the next morning.
Contact James Munson at
jamesm@yukon-news.com