Power off for Hundreds After Toronto Vault Fire

by Rob Walker | July 22, 2008 at 12:20 pm | 304 views | 5 comments

It's the second underground fire in Toronto in a week, and the third in Canada this month after last week's power-cutting Vancouver fire.

While this one wasn't nearly as serious, hundreds of people were left without power and had to stay in their units until 6pm last night, until the air quality improved.

Power will be off for much of the day in the affected areas while crews work to repair the blown fuse.

Hundreds of people were left without power near St. Clair Avenue and Spadina Road on Tuesday morning after Toronto's second underground electrical fire this week.

Tuesday's fire began while hydro crews were working on an electrical vault below a 15-storey apartment building at 260 Heath Street West, said Capt. Mike Strapko of the Toronto Fire Service.

"When they finished their work and re-energized the vault, the fire started," he told CTV.ca on Tuesday morning, saying the fire was small and "fairly routine" for firefighters to handle. "We got the call at 4:46 a.m... and cleared the scene in just over an hour."

Add a comment Comments (5)

Paschen
good stuff:

Rob Walker, I like this story. It's good stuff.

They must know how to prevent this and what is causing it! Is it the same cause for all 3 fires?

Mike Wood
good stuff:

Rob Walker, I like this story. It's good stuff.

I received one phone call this morning asking if the two in Toronto are connected and purposely caused.

Here come the conspiracies.

Canam

Power outages as a result of a failure from a hydro vault are fairly common in the City of Toronto and to even remotely try to connect the two incidents is like saying a lightning strike on the CN Tower is from the same cloud as a lightning strike at Canada's Wonderland!  If you are looking at conspiracies or the thought of terrorist action, they would have to be the dumbest people on the planet considering that the results thereof, only cause an inconvenience for normally 2 to 6 hours. 

These are merely remote and unrelated incidences, nothing more.

Paschen

How about just looking at generators being over due for replacement or Heat waves and over use of Air conditioner. Not every one is into conspiracy theories or terror attacks, most still have they feet on the ground!

Canam

Paschen, FYI generators are in place after the electricity is out, not before...

With respect to the Secord Avenue hydro vault explosion and fire, there was no appreciable tax on the electrical supply to cause the occurance.  That is still under investigation.

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July 22, 2008 at 12:20 pm by Rob Walker, 304 views, 5 comments

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