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Temperatures were predicted to hit -3°C in Quesnel overnight.

Photo by handout / PNG

Her four kids are away this week, so Valois has shut all the bedroom doors, turned the thermostat down and pulled out an oil heater to make up the difference.

When the kids come back, they will need an electric heater for every room.

“It’s (2°C) right now so it’s not too bad, but it’s going to get colder,” she said. “I can’t imagine how people farther north will be able to cut back.”

Raelene Belcher will fire up the electric fireplace and turn down her thermostat, but it’s too cold to shut down her gas furnace. Overnight temperatures in Chetwynd have already hit -5°C this fall.

“I have two young boys that I won’t let get too cold,” she said. “I’ll shower my kids every second day for now and myself, too, but my husband has to shower every day as he is a welder and gets pretty dirty at work.”

If the gas runs out completely, things may get chilly with no heat or hot water.

“We don’t have a real wood stove, so we would have to pack up and go to a friend’s place or buy some more electric heaters I guess,” she said. “It’s too cold here to be turning off anything.”

FortisBC is working to bring in more gas from Alberta through the TransCanada gas line.

Doug Stout, FortisBC’s vice-president of external relations, said Wednesday that 85 per cent of the gas his company feeds to homes and businesses is carried by the twinned pipeline that runs from northern B.C. to the United States border south of Vancouver.