Power was restored in downtown Toronto on Thursday. A power outage plunged the offices of a major Canadian company into darkness and forced the evacuation of one of the city's largest shopping malls, trapping him. Elevator man.
Hydro One, Ontario's largest distribution company, said a barge moving a crane hit three high-voltage power lines and damaged equipment at the power plant.
"Early this evening, the Toronto Fire cleared the station to allow the crew to safely reroute and restore power to his Hydro in Toronto," said a power distribution operator in downtown Toronto. said in a statement, referring to the company that is doing it.
Toronto is Canada's largest city and financial center, with the nation's largest concentration of banks, insurance companies and stock exchanges in its central business district.
The power outage drained workers from downtown skyscrapers onto the streets, onto sidewalks and parks, and closed many cafes and restaurants during peak business hours.
The City of Toronto Fire Department said it responded to "multiple calls" of people trapped in elevators.
"Came to town and jumped in the elevator just before the power went out. Still here. Terrible timing," Canadian Immigration Minister Sean Fraser tweeted at 1:10 p.m. Since then he has left the elevator.
According to Reuters eyewitnesses, branches of major banks in the affected areas, including Royal Bank of Canada, Toronto-Dominion Bank and Bank of Montreal, were locked, and in some locations employees were barred. It was seen sitting in the dark.
None of the three banks immediately commented.
"It was 12:39. We were working in the office and suddenly nothing appeared," said Santiago, who works at Scotia Plaza in downtown Toronto. Orasco said. "A lot of people came out of the emergency exits with us."
The TTC, which operates the subway, said the power outage triggered air conditioning, but operations were normal. rice field. The TTC has warned tram users of the potential for significant delays.
According to the Toronto Stock Exchange, the office was temporarily out of power, but the system was not. The University of Toronto said some buildings were affected.
A blackout caused traffic lights to stop working in some areas, according to Reuters eyewitnesses.
The outage began around noon (1600 GMT) EDT. Some Hydro One customers expressed their complaints on Twitter.
The power outage comes just one month after a system failure at Rogers Communications Inc put the communications services of dozens of users and services across Canada out of action for nearly 19 hours.