FortisBC says crews are working hard to restore service to the 6,200 gas customers in Lake Country, North Kelowna, and the Okanagan Indian Band (Duck Lake IR7).
Gas service to the area went out on Wednesday and FortisBC says all gas meter shut-offs in the area are now complete.
Lauren Beckett, corporate communication advisor at FortisBC, told Global News on Friday that they have about 60 technicians on the ground in the area.
“What customers can expect from the relight process is a technician will come and revisit their home to turn gas back on at the metre and then relight all affected appliances,” Beckett said.
“If a customer is not home, the technician will leave a door tag and that will have instructions that they can follow to request a return visit. Right now, we are estimating that the work will continue today and through the weekend.”
She would not say what caused the outage, only that “information indicates that the outage originated within our system.”
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Businesses in the area were also forced to shut down.
The Greek House restaurant told Global News it has been unable to operate without its natural gas-powered kitchen equipment.
“My broiler, my deep fryer, my oven,” Christos Vassilopoulos said.
He estimates that he has already lost at least $7,000 while staff go without shifts and pay.
“With you know, generally the economy, like things are tight, everything is expensive, it is a very tight business.”
Lake Country’s mayor says the district is supporting residents with a warming centre at 15710 Oyama Road while urging FortisBC to restore service quickly.
“It’s cold at night, even colder this morning,” Blair Ireland said.
“You don’t have hot water. Businesses can’t do their business. You know, it’s uncomfortable in schools. This is a really big impact to a community.”
Residents are encouraged to continue following FortisBC’s Service Alert website for the latest updates on service restoration.
Ireland agrees restoration is the top priority, but is also calling on Fortis to be transparent.
“People want to know what happened; we want them to know what happened,” he said.
“Let’s go for some more transparency and communication and letting people know what’s caused this. You know, can we make plans to avoid it in the future?”
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
Crews working to restore gas to 6,200 customers in Lake Country, North Kelowna
