Power restored to about 1,000 in Toronto's east end
Power has been restored to approximately 1,000 customers in East York who were in the dark for approximately two hours because of what Toronto Hydro says was an issue with one of its transformers.
The utility first reported that about 50 customers were affected by an outage in the area bordered by the Don River, Pape Avenue, Danforth Avenue and Donlands Avenue around 8:20 p.m. That number quickly snowballed after crews working on the outage "ran into an issue," spokesperson Tori Gass told CBC Toronto.
At least three highrise buildings in the area were initially affected along with traffic lights and streetlights on Broadview Avenue, south of Pottery Road. A Sobeys grocery store was also affected with only checkout scanners and debit and credit machines receiving power.
Toronto Hydro says an issue with a padmount transformer near Evergreen Brick Works was to blame.
Fire crews were called to the transformer at about 8:15 p.m. Smoke could be seen when they arrived, said Capt. David Eckerman, who said five trucks were needed to knock down the fire.
Gass says it's too soon to determine if weather played a role in Sunday evening's outage. Toronto was under a heat warning Sunday with the humidex making it feel close to 40 C.
Earlier Sunday evening, Eckerman told CBC Toronto fire crews were called to 1205 Broadview Ave. for reports of a transformer exploding and sparks falling onto the street.
Fire crews also performed two elevator rescues in the area, one involving a boy stuck near the seventh floor of a building on Gamble Avenue. Eckerman said there was no immediate threat to the boy's health, but that he was stuck for around 20 minutes.
