Village of Clinton as seen from above July 27 as the Pear Lake fire approaches in the tree line above the community/via BC Wildfire Service
A significant step in getting folks in the Village of Clinton back home taking place this afternoon.
BC Hydro estimates the power for the village core is being re-activated as of 4pm on Friday.
Hydro says this should energize the Village-proper.
“There will be still some customers off in the greater Clinton area as other repairs occur,” said Susan Edgell with BC Hydro’s Kamloops office.
Outlying areas to the west of Clinton are expected to be reenergized sometime in the later morning on Saturday.
Outage list on BC Hydro’s update page as of 3pm, August 7, 2026/via BC Hydro
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Without power, the Village is unable to operate its critical systems, including the pumps which help operate the water intake to supply and run the systems for both potable water and sewar.
But with the return of power does not necessarily mean an immediate return for the over 500 people who call the Village of Clinton home.
Mayor Roland Stanke made note of that in one of his updates earlier in the week.
“I understand that [BC H]ydro is working diligently to get power up and running,” said Stanke in one of his notes posted to his personal Facebook page, which is used by himself as a way to get information out to his constituents. “That is not the only piece in the returning puzzle.”
One of those ‘puzzle pieces’ is any damage which has been done to the critical systems themselves, which Stanke did elude to in a later post talking about his meeting with BC Forests Minister Ravi Parmar, who was in the region this week.
“Also discussed the severe damage in our watershed and both reservoirs,” he noted as part of a list of issues discussed with the Minister connected to the fires.
“Discussed [C]linton future in regards to short term and long term planning to avoid any such incidents in the future,” Stanke added at the time.
Everyone in the Village of Clinton was told to leave on July 24th as the Pear Lake fire took hold and began moving toward the community.
While the scope of the damage and losses in the community is not clearly known, the Thompson Nicola Regional District estimates that around 120 properties have suffered some form of structure loss in the surrounding area.
