Quebec’s power utility scrambled to get the power back on when nearly a quarter of a million customers lost electricity Thursday afternoon due to forest fires.
Hydro-Québec spokesperson Maxence Huard-Lefebvre said the power outages were related to heat and smoke from the fires in the North Shore that triggered protection mechanisms in two transmission lines.
On Twitter, the Crown corporation said the power would be restored gradually, and within a few hours, more than 200,000 customers had electricity.
At its peak, 240,000 customers were without power, with Montreal one of the hardest hit regions with 125 outages affecting 93,500 customers. But by 5 p.m., the number of customers
