
It appears residents on the Westside impacted by the McDougall Creek wildfire will get all of their utility services up and running before the end of the month.
While several people living up and down Westside Road suffered the ultimate loss - their homes - others whose homes are habitable are still waiting on utility companies to restore some of their services.
One resident of Traders Cove who works from home along with her husband, has been unable to work because internet service has not yet been restored and insurance won't pay out-of-home living expenses because the home is livable.
Representatives of Rogers say as many as 20 kilometres of hydro pole infrastructure, including power, telecommunications and fibre lines were lost during the fire.
"While home services have been restored for a vast majority of customers in the area, restoration for customers in Traders Cove is delayed due to BC Hydro requiring work to complete a hydro pole construction including some underground work to connect power," an email stated.
"Once work is completed by the utility we expect services to be restored before the end of December."
Telus, which was also affected by the fire, says technicians have repaired and replaced infrastructure damaged by the fire in Rose Valley, Traders Cove, Wilsons Landing and Nahun.
"Our technicians restored TV and Internet services in the West Kelowna Estates including Traders Cove, and are currently installing new fibre lines throughout Rose Valley, Bear Creek, Nahun, Cinnabar Creek, and Wilson’s Landing, giving customers access to Telus’ most advanced PureFibre network for the first time," a spokesman for the company says.
"We anticipate that these restoration efforts and PureFibre upgrades will be completed this month."