Flamborough residents worried for their safety after 7 power outages

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Flamborough residents are dealing with at least seven power outages, – and two major power surges in less than a month. Some have lost thousands of dollars in appliances and electronics. The most recent surge was so powerful, that some homes filled with smoke – that has residents worried for their safety. Some of these power surges were so powerful they even blew out power surge protectors. One residents power surge protector was no match for the voltage that came through the hydro lines in in their home. It melted the plastic casing of the surge protector, and blackened the shelf it was sitting on. “It’s very dangerous…you can see from the bookshelf that it could have caught fire and our house could have burned down, which is very scary. If that happened in the middle of the night with our children here, I shudder to think what could have happened” says Flamborough resident Harriet Ekperigin. The surges also took out the homes furnace twice, and a brand new fridge. They’ve been using a cooler for almost a month.

Just down the road Melissa Zogala had her dishwasher, computer, Wii and coffee maker fried. “Myself and my husband were in the kitchen and right by the coffee maker we heard another loud bang, like a gunshot, and then we started smelling burning plastic. ” Ms. Zogala had a surge protector on her computer that was also fried. She says hydro one told her they wont take responsibility for the losses. “We just want answers. We want the cost of our property replaced. We want them to do something, so it doesn’t keep on happening…before someone gets hurt”.

People in the community had a meeting on Sunday. They invited their Councillor, Judi Partridge to attend. She said there was about 35 people at the meeting and they all had the same issues with surges. She says this is a dangerous situation and hydro one needs to do more. “They had examples of surge protectors that had blown out of the wall, had turned black, there was smoke in the houses, the fire department had to come. This is not a little issue…so I’m extremely concerned for my residents.” She’s sent a letter to Hydro One and MPP Ted McMeekin.

Hydro one says a number of things caused the surges and outages, hings such as downed lines, broken poles and insulators. “What they’ve done in the last week since these outages started is use thermal vision camera’s to do a thorough inspection on equipment, in the last week they’ve replaced twelve cross arms, and 36 insulators on that main line as part of a preventative maintenance” says Hydro One Sr. Media Advisor Tiziana Baccega Rosa.