There was plenty of noise and smoke, but no reported injuries when a power outage and a pump fire left parts of Oceanside Village Resort without power Friday (Jan. 5).
The Parksville Volunteer Fire Department was called to Oceanside Village Resort on Resort Drive at 10:52 a.m. on Friday for reports of smoke.
Kathy Fraser, Oceanside Village Resort manager, said the incident started with a big bang, “like a power surge, like a transformer went out.” Fraser said each of the resort’s commercial buildings lost bits of power.
After the power went out, Fraser said, she went to check the pump room in the pool house since it’s not good for the power to be out and the pumps to be running.
Once she got there, she said there was lots of smoke. Fraser said one of the pumps caught fire just as the fire department pulled up.
“It was good timing for sure,” Fraser said.
Mike Tisdelle, Parksville assistant fire chief, said there has been some electrical problems in the area.
“When we arrived on scene, there was smoke coming out of the pump room of the pool house,” Tisdelle said.
The source of the fire, Tisdelle said, turned out to be a small electrical pump that had malfunctioned and caught on fire.