A tree chewed by a beaver toppled onto power lines, knocking out power to a large swath of east Maple Ridge early Tuesday.
The power outage affected 2,840 customers at the height of the outage, according to B.C. Hydro.
Spokesperson Simi Heer confirmed the outage was caused by a busy beaver.
“There were marks on the tree that were consistent with a beaver having brought it down and there were also some wood chips around it,” said Heer.
The tree toppled onto power lines near 240th Street, triggering an outage around 3:45 a.m. that stretched into the downtown core and parts of Langley.
Crews had to replaced the entire pole as well as the power lines. Most of the customers had their power restored by 6 a.m., while the rest were back on the grid by 11:30 a.m.
“We do have a vegetation maintenance program so we are able to trim trees that pose a hazard to power lines, but this one is hard to predict,” said Heer.
This is second time a beaver has caused a power outage in Maple Ridge in the past two months.
In June, another beaver chewed through a tree causing it to topple onto power lines near Tamarack Lane and Lougheed Highway.
Sparks from the power lines started a small fire near Spencer Creek, forcing the Maple Ridge Fire Department to shut down Lougheed Hwy. to traffic travelling west for several hours.