A raccoon appears to be responsible for the power outage that left Toronto’s downtown core in the dark for several hours last night.
“We’re working closely with Hydro One to restore power and resolve the issue as quickly and safely as possible,” the utility company said in a Feb. 1 post just before 9 p.m. “We appreciate your patience at this time.”
Buildings, street lights, traffic lights, and transit services were all impacted by the outage causing drivers to inch carefully through the darkened downtown section while commuters negotiated the darkened subway platforms with the aid of emergency lights.
TTC subway service on Line 1 was impacted by the power outage, with no service available between Union and Bloor-Yonge.
Toronto fire crews were also kept busy during the outage.
While a Toronto Hydro spokesperson said about 7,000 customers were left without power, some city residents disputed that, insisting the outage was much larger.
Some city residents also shared pictures and videos of what the outage looked like.
“Crazy moment. Power outage in downtown Toronto. Everyone putting up their phone lights. Vibes,” one person posted on X.
“No signal lights working, pedestrians and drivers are cooperating,” another post on X said. “Huge Power outage at downtown Toronto. So funny that a racoon did all this.”
