Power has been fully restored to over 100,000 people after a flooded transformer station knocked out electricity in Toronto's west end Thursday night.
A huge section of the city, west of Spadina, was suddenly plunged into darkness at about 10 p.m. Thursday when water poured into the basement of a hydro station on Dufferin Street.
Toronto Hydro officials say a sprinkler pipe in its transformer station burst, flooding the building's basement waist-deep in water.
The flood caused components in the station to short circuit, prompting crews to cut power on pieces of other equipment to prevent more damage.
The result - lights and heating stopped for 22,000 homes and businesses. Toronto Hydro estimates that represents over than 100,000 people.
Four breakers were damaged and Toronto Hydro says it's not sure if the burst was weather-related.
The area affected by the blackout was bordered by Spadina to the east, Jane Street to the west, St. Clair Avenue to the north and Queen Street to the south.
By 10 a.m. on Friday morning, electricity had been restored to about half of the affected area. By 5 p.m. power was restored to about 75 per cent of the affected area.
The outage forced the closure of schools and the subway system from Keele to St. George station.
The Bloor-Danforth subway line was brought online again at about 2:30 p.m.
Although the tracks were powered, platform lighting runs off the grid affected by the outage, so passengers would not have been able to see where they were going TTC officials say.
Mayor David Miller says people should call their insurance companies if their pipes freeze, and they should try to help seniors and neighbours.
