Queensborough Bridge fire to blame for rush-hour chaos
Officials partly reopened the Queensborough Bridge in time for the evening rush hour after an early morning electrical fire shut down the span connecting New Westminster with Queensborough and beyond.
The City of New Westminster reopened northbound lanes just after 1:30 p.m. One southbound lane was reopened around 2:30 p.m. Pedestrian access remained limited to the east side of the bridge.
The morning closure caused rushhour madness across the Lower Mainland during Wednesday’s commute with many people forced to scramble for alternate routes.
New West Mayor Jonathan Cote said crews were still on site assessing the damage around noon, nearly 12 hours after the fire started.
“There’s no doubt this incident has created significant disruption,” Cote said of having to close a bridge that carries about 80,000 vehicles daily. “Our priority right now is the residents in Queensborough who are without power and making sure that things are in place to deal with, potentially, a long power outage.”
Starlight Casino, located in Queensborough, will open their buffet for free to affected residents who can show proof of ID and residence and at the Queensborough fire hall the Salvation Army was serving free hotdogs and hamburgers to area residents.
It’s believed a high-voltage cable failure sparked an electrical fire sometime early Wednesday, causing power to go out on the bridge. As a result, the bridge and nearby schools in Queensborough were without power and closed Wednesday morning.
“Once the electrical utilities (crews) are done their work, we’ll work side by side with them with our investigators, but with this type of an incident, it’s really hard to determine an actual cause,” said New West fire Chief Tim Armstrong.