Thousands of residents were left without power Saturday afternoon in the northeast corner of the city after wind blew over three power poles, sparking a grass fire on Thatcher Drive. 

Around 3500 residents and numerous businesses were without power for a brief period in time. 

"We knew that a strong wind storm was coming in, winds up to 110 kilometers an hour," said Jonathan Trembley, spokesperson for Saskpower. "So we were standing by, but we didn't see this coming exactly. We had three poles that were torn down by the wind; those poles did start a small grass fire in the area it didn't go very far and did stay contained. It actually went out by itself." 

According to Environment Canada, there was a peak wind gust just over 75 km per hour on Saturday. It took the better part of a day for all of the local and some of the Regina SaskPower crews to make the repairs.
"Not only did we have all of our Moose Jaw staff there, but we sent everyone that we could from Regina just so that we could address it quickly and safely. The first step is just that - to make it safe. So make sure the power is turned off to the whole area since we had some wires on the ground."

Almost all customers had their power restored within 90 minutes, however there was a small amount who went without power until 9pm Saturday evening.