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TELUS plans outage for customers in the Keremeos area

Customers will be unable to make 911 calls
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TELUS customers in the Keremeos area will temporarily be without service on Saturday night, Aug. 13, the telecommunications provider has announced.

The company is planning a “proactive repair” of the network to avoid more impactful outages due to the ongoing wildfires in the region.

The outage will impact customers in Keremeos, Boston Bar, Fraser Acres, Spuzzum, Yale, Lytton and Spences Bridge. Repairs begin at 11 p.m.

“TELUS has strategically scheduled repairs to take place during low service usage hours to limit impact to residents and emergency services,” the service provider wrote to local governments.

Representatives from the company later told Black Press they expect repairs to last about an hour and customers in the areas listed will experience “temporary disruption.”

Customers will be unable to make 911 calls during the outage, with internet and wireless services also set to go offline.

“We could usually avoid a disruption while completing these repairs by moving customers to our other fibre lines in the area, however, these back-up fibre lines are affected by other wildfires,” TELUS has stated.

The company says the more than 6,700 hectare Keremeos Creek wildfire has damaged about two and a half kilometres of aerial fibre which will be replaced when safe access is granted and Fortis poles are replaced.

The new Richter Mountain wildfire, meanwhile, has also caused significant damage, they added.

“TELUS has strategically scheduled repairs to take place during low service usage hours to limit impact to residents and emergency services.”

UPDATE: Evacuation alert rescinded along Highway 3 for Richter Mountain wildfire


@lgllockhart
logan.lockhart@pentictonwesternnews.com