Article author:
Reuters
Divya Rajagopal and Shreya Jain
TORONTO — A power outage left the offices of Canada's top firms in the dark and one evacuated after it hit downtown Toronto on Thursday. Power was restored after being forced to People trapped in the city's biggest shopping malls and elevators.
Hydro One, Ontario's largest electricity distribution company, said a barge moving a crane struck him three high-voltage power lines, damaging equipment at the power plant.
"Early this evening, the Toronto Fire cleared the station, allowing the crew to safely reroute and Toronto He restored power to the Hydro," said a power distribution company in downtown Toronto. said in a statement referring to the company.
Toronto is Canada's largest city and financial center, with the Central Business District home to the country's largest banks, insurance companies and stock exchange .
The power outage drained workers from downtown skyscrapers into the streets, onto sidewalks and parks, and closed many cafes and restaurants during peak business hours.
The Toronto Fire Department said it responded to "multiple calls" of people trapped in elevators.
"I came into town that day and jumped in the elevator just before the power went out. I'm still here. Terrible timing," Canadian immigration minister Sean Fraser said at 1:10 p.m. Tweeted. Since then he has left the elevator.
Reuters eyewitnesses said branches of major banks in the affected areas, including the Royal Bank of Canada, Toronto-Dominion Bank and Bank of Montreal, were locked and in some locations employees were kept in the dark. was seen sitting in
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 subway operator TTC said the blackout had caused the air conditioning to turn on, but that operations were normal. 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 fail in some areas, according to Reuters eyewitnesses.
EDT Power outage started around noon (1600 GMT). Some Hydro One customers expressed their complaints on Twitter.
The power outage came just one month after a system failure at Rogers Communications Inc put the communications services of numerous users and services across Canada out of action for nearly 19 hours. (Reporting by Divya Rajagopal, Shreya Jain, Nichola Saminather, Toronto; Ismail Shakil, Ottawa; Eric Beech, Washington; Costas Pitas, Los Angeles; Editing by Sandra Maler, Stephen Coates, Leslie Adler, Lincoln Feast)
54}