SaskPower blames shifting ground as third meter box catches fire
SaskPower will be inspecting the meter boxes of hundreds of homes in Regina after three recent fires were caused by wiring being pulled by shifting ground.
The latest fire happened at a home in the Normanview area on Thursday afternoon.
Christeen White was working in her kitchen Thursday afternoon when she heard what sounded like fireworks going off.
White and her husband, Scott, had just returned home from golfing and Scott was in the garage putting stuff away.
“The power was flashing on and off and I thought, ‘Oh my God, did he get electrocuted? Like what’s going on out there,’ ” she said.
She ran outside where her husband was and he yelled to her that the SaskPower meter on the side of their house was on fire and to call 911.
Within minutes, Regina Fire and Protective Services was on scene at their home at 235 Forsyth Cres.
SaskPower shut down power to most of the Normanview area so firefighters could put out the fire.
The fire was caused by the same shifting ground conditions that led to other fires at meter boxes in the city this week.
After the fire was extinguished, SaskPower returned power to everything except the immediate surrounding area. Crews then inspected 30 nearby homes for the same issue. Eight of those homes were showing the same warning signs, including a meter box that had tilted because of the ground shifting.
The meter boxes were removed, and electricians will put in more extra wiring before they are reinstalled.
In the Normanview area, the ground has been shifting between three and eight inches.
“We’re going to add in more wiring so that the ground can eat up more wire as it needs to,” said SaskPower spokesman Jonathan Tremblay.
Meters built in 1970 have copper wire service and their small size means the wire can be pulled when the ground shifts during dry weather conditions
“When the ground shifts away and pulls out that copper wire, the electricity can still flow and perhaps even cause a small fire in rare cases,” said Tremblay.
SaskPower crews will be out this weekend inspecting hundreds of homes throughout the city with meter boxes that fit that profile. Most are located in the Normanview, Glencairn and Uplands areas.
SaskPower will be shutting off the power while inspecting the homes. Residents should expect outages to last two hours when their area is being inspected.
Customers are also being advised to check their meter box to see if it has tilted or if wires are being pulled out. If so, they should call 1-888-757-6937.
Ryan Blair, SaskPower’s operations manager for Regina, said seeing meter box incidents of this magnitude and frequency is very rare.
SaskPower has no plans to replace all meter boxes that may be prone to this issue.
“If it hasn’t shifted in 40 years and there’s still lots of slack in the meter box, I would say that that’s safe for now, but there’s always a risk with those smaller meter boxes because of the lack of room inside,” said Blair.