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Thousands of Hills residents sweltering through 42 degree heat without power

Sarah BrookesHills / East

HOT weather is hampering Western Power’s efforts to restore power to a large swathe of homes in the Perth Hills.

With the mercury tipped to hit nearly 43 degrees east of Perth, residents in parts of Mt Helena, Sawyers Valley, Gidgegannup, Bailup, Wooroloo and Chidlow have taken to social media to express their frustration power cannot be restored until it cools down this evening.

A Western Power spokesman said emergency response crews were looking for the cause of the unplanned outage that is affecting 1325 customers in the Hills.

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“Our crews standard operating procedures have been changed for today because the area is in a Total Fire Ban area,” he said.

“DFES personnel are assisting our crews to assess the network that runs through bush and forested areas, due to vehicle movement bans.

“Our crews will still be able to repair any damage that is found on the network, however restoration of power can only commence once the fire index falls to a safe level.

“This may not be possible until later this evening.

“We are sincerely sorry for the frustration caused by this unplanned outage. Especially on such a hot day.

“We will continue to work towards restoring power to you as quickly and safely as possible, given the restrictions that are in place today.

“If you see a damaged powerline or network asset, please stay at least eight metres away and make the safe call to Western Power on 13 13 51.”

Emergency response crews are also currently looking for the cause of an unplanned outage affecting customers in South Guildford. At its height 544 customers were without power, now 171 homes are impacted by the outage.

It follows yesterdays power outage that affected thousands of homes were in Kalamunda, Gooseberry Hill, Maida Vale, Lesmurdie, Cannington, Stirling and Forrestfield.