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Animal contact causes transformer fire and outage in Toronto

May 2019Published 20 Oct 2026Responsible editor: Chief Editor

MinorElectricalProvisionalNext update 20 Oct
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Companies named in this entry: Toronto Hydro

What happened

On Thursday 23 May 2019, a transformer fire at De Grassi Street, east of Dundas Street and Broadview Avenue in Toronto's east end left around 3,800 people without power, according to Toronto Hydro. Toronto Hydro said the fire was caused by animal contact. The affected area ran from the lake side up to Gerrard Street and from the Don Valley Parkway to Woodbine Avenue. Toronto Hydro initially aimed to restore power within two hours.

Crews ran into complications while restoring supply, but by the morning about 350 customers remained without power. Streetcar services were suspended at the peak of the outage and had resumed on all affected routes by the morning, while buses continued to supplement service through the morning rush.

Contributing factors

Toronto Hydro stated that the transformer fire was caused by animal contact. The source does not describe the equipment design, its age or its protection against animal ingress.

Lessons learned

  1. Protect transformers and exposed live equipment against animal ingress, for example with insulated covers or barriers, and inspect sites for signs of animal activity.
  2. Expect complications when restoring supply after an equipment fire, and give customers and partners revised restoration times as crews learn more.
  3. Coordinate with transport and other public services early, because a loss of power can quickly affect streetcars, traffic signals and other networks.

More lessons on spacing, layout and fire spread, outages, backup supply and restoration, emergency response and public communication, from every incident on the register.

Source

globalnews.ca

Other entries that name Toronto

Published 2026-10-20. Written from public reporting. Descriptive, not investigative. See the data accuracy disclaimer.

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