Downtown businesses were not the only ones affected when a fire leveled a portion of 300-block George St. early Monday morning.
Just over 100 telephone lines were put out of commission with crews working over night to restore service by about 4 a.m. Tuesday, Telus spokesman Shawn Hall confirmed.
The Fraser-Fort George Regional District office at George Street and First was without phone service all Monday, spokeswoman Renee McCloskey said, but the lines were back on by Tuesday morning.
The fire also knocked out power to 242 B.C. Hydro customers east of Alward, west of Ingledew, north of Porter and south of Fifth, from 1:24 a.m. to 4:18 a.m.
"The fire caused that particular line to trip back at the substation breaker, so it took out the entire circuit," B.C. Hydro spokesman Dave Mosher said. "Crews responded, made sure it was safe in the firefighting area for operations there to continue, inspected the line and then re-energized it and it held."
Then from 9 a.m. to noon, service to customers along 300 block George St. was cut to allow for mop up and repairs to the overhead lines, Mosher said.
FortisBC spokeswoman Grace Pickell said a crew was called to the scene in case firefighters needed their help. Natural gas to the three buildings destroyed in the fire is no longer in service but remained flowing to the others along the block, Pickell said.
The utilidor, the city's series of trench boxes along the lane west of George Street from Sixth Avenue to Second Avenue in which services like fibre optic cable have been laid, was unaffected, city spokesman Mike Kellett said.
