Hundreds of BC Hydro customers on the West Shore were without power for hours Wednesday after a felled tree struck power lines.
At the peak of the outage, more than 3,200 customers were in the dark, according to its BC Hydro.
A Langford city engineer says a tree was being cut down on a property on Glen Lake Road when it fell in the wrong direction, toppling on to power lines.
"Both lanes on the road are closed right now and it's near the bus loop at Belmont high school, so we're just working with the district to make sure the kids can get safely home," said Langford Director of Engineering Michelle Mahovlich.
A neighbour reported hearing a "really large crack" near the construction site where the tree was felled.
"They're doing lot construction, clearing this lot for I think condos, and they felled the tree the wrong way," said Lara Allsop.
She said the incident was concerning because it happened in an area where kids are dropped off by their school bus.
"We have school buses and my kids are right here, this is their drop-off zones," she said. "If that came down during school hours it could've potentially taken children's lives."
As of 4:00 p.m., only about 600 customers in Colwood and Langford remained without power.
Power was also knocked out for several hours at Belmont Secondary School, which switched to backup generators.
