Power restored after widespread outage that plunged parts of downtown Toronto into darkness

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Transformer fire knocks out power to hundreds of customers in downtown Toronto

Billboards outside Eaton Centre go dark amid widespread power outage downtown

Power has been fully restored following a widespread outage in downtown Toronto on Tuesday that impacted numerous traffic lights and, at one point, resulted in the electronic billboards outside the Eaton Centre going dark.

The outage, which was first reported just before noon, was the result of a small fire at Hydro One’s Terauley Transmission Station.

It plunged parts of Toronto’s financial district into darkness, with officials indicating that the outage was largely impacting an area between Yonge Street and University Avenue south of Dundas Street.

By 2:30 p.m., Toronto Hydro confirmed that power had been restored to a “large portion” of impacted customers. The company then confirmed at 4 p.m. that power had been fully restored to the area.

“We sincerely apologize for the disruption this outage caused and thank our customers and the community for their patience and understanding while crews worked to safely restore service,” Toronto Hydro said in a statement.

The utility company noted that approximately 1,360 customers were affected at the peak of the outage.

Toronto police previously confirmed that the outage was impacting numerous traffic lights, and those intersections should be treated as four-way stops.

Eaton Centre, TMU impacted

Electronic billboards outside the Eaton Centre were also blank at around noon on Tuesday.

Toronto Metropolitan University said the power outage impacted some areas of the downtown campus and students in some buildings, including RAC, JOR, POD, LIB, TRS, SLC, YNG, and YDI, should evacuate immediately.

“Evacuation is required because a utilities failure of this nature may compromise the building’s life-safety systems (i.e. fire-detection and sprinkler systems),” an email from the university read.

“For your safety, please avoid these areas of campus.”

All classes, labs or exams being held in these buildings were paused until power was restored.

Employees who work in those buildings were also told to “find an alternate place to work or take a break nearby until the power failure has been resolved.”

“Employees who provide essential services on campus should check with their leaders for further instructions,” the email read.

Power back on at SickKids Hospital

SickKids Hospital said it experienced a “temporary power failure” across all buildings but the lights are now back on.

“Power has been restored and teams are assessing impacts,” the downtown hospital said in a social media post.

“Care is continuing and the hospital is operating, including the Emergency Department and clinics.”