Katie May
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, July 02, 2008

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Nearly 1,000 people had their shot at $100,000 delayed Saturday night when firefighters had to evacuate a bingo game at the Multiplex because of a power outage.

Lightning strikes during a thunderstorm took out electricity in Yellowknife, Behchoko, Fort Smith and Fort Resolution for nearly four hours in some areas while crews worked to restore electricity. Power went out in the city at 8:41 p.m. and was back on by 12:30 a.m. Sunday.

Firefighters were called around 10 p.m. Saturday to evacuate the Multiplex, which was empty except for the bingo players. Firefighters arrived after the battery packs in the building had all died and there were no emergency lights.

Deputy fire Chief Darcy Hernblad said the crew was concerned about the bingo players' safety because the building was completely dark. Overall, he said the evacuation went fairly well.

"There was a little resistance, but not too too bad," said Hernblad.

"We always feel bad when we have to get people to leave the building during a special event," he added. "Safety is paramount, that's why we do it."

When the power came back on after midnight, around 900 players returned to the Multiplex amid heavy rain, continuing their game from 12:30 a.m. to 2:30 a.m. Sunday.

Byrne Richards, one of the directors of the Aurora Oxford House which organized the bingo, said many of the players had waited in vehicles through the thunderstorm for the lights to come back on.

Despite some evacuation confusion, most players weren't disappointed about delaying the game.

"Generally speaking, the players were very understanding that we couldn't continue the game," he said., but they were anxious to get back at the bingo tables.

"We couldn't cancel the game. People came from out of town specifically for that game and that set of games," Richards said, adding people had come from as far as Inuvik and Nunavut for a shot at the $100,000 jackpot.

The big winner was a woman from Fort Smith.

Robert Schmidt, director of hydro services with NWT Power Corp., estimated between 300 and 400 lightning strikes hit the area, but he said it's hard to tell the exact number because their lightning strike detector went down during the outage.

"It's not very often you see lightning this close to town but it really hit us last night," he said Sunday.