Disaster-Recovery Lessons from Vancouver Fire - Headline Watch

If you’re working on a disaster-recovery plan, you might take a note from a massive fire in downtown Vancouver, B.C.

CBCNews.ca reports that power isn’t expected to be restored to the area until sometime Tuesday after the explosion of an underground transformer started the fire Monday. The fire created so much heat and smoke that crews from BC Hydro couldn’t inspect the damage until more than seven hours later, according to the Vancouver Sun.

E-mail provider Hushmail reports on its Web site that [name removed] its hosting company switched over to generators. But the fire department drew so much water to fight the fire that it reduced water pressure in the mains to the point that [the] water-cooled generator couldn’t operate. Then it was lights out in more ways than one.

Happily, Hushmail reports its service has since been restored.