‘All hands on deck’ as major Toronto power outage leaves thousands without electricity

Shops and restaurants across Canadian capital forced to shut, while country’s immigration minister was trapped in elevator

Around 10,000 people in downtown Toronto were left without power on Thursday afternoon after a major outage led to a black out of a huge swathe of the Canadian city.

Power was restored for all residents as of 8pm, reported CBC News.

Hydro One, which supplies electricity to the city’s surrounding province of Ontario, said on Thursday that it had put “all hands on deck” to discover the cause of the fault.

A spokesperson told CBC News that the company was investigating reports that the outage was caused by a construction crane touching an overhead power cable while being carried on a barge.

A video posted on Twitter on Thursday showed a tall crane on a barge coming into contact with power lines stretched across a channel of water on Toronto’s lakefront, causing sparks and a loud thump.

The company later posted images of the same scene, with the crane still floating on its transport near the affected power line. However, a spokesperson said it was not yet clear whether that incident was the only cause.

“We know this has made today exceptionally difficult for many of you, and we appreciate your patience. We will continue to share more information as it becomes available,” Hydro One said.

Other photos showed shops and restaurants closed due to lack of power, while Canada’s immigration minister Sean Fraser said he was trapped in a stalled elevator.

Hydro One added that some traffic lights might also be affected. Toronto Hydro, another utility company, had also showed the huge chunk of towntown Toronto that had been blacked out, on its outage map.

Many shops lost power to their payment machines, meaning they could not accept debit or credit cards, while food vendors were unable to use their fridges and other equipment.

“When power goes out, every system we have shuts down,” shop employee Wynee Gee told the Toronto-based Financial Post. ”Every single aspect of this job requires power, requires electricity. It’s very eye-opening.”

She added that there was “no way” her team would hit their daily sales target, which could lead to them receiving a lower monthly bonus. “When we have technological issues, or in this case electricity issues… it really hurts us. It’s money that we can’t make,” she said.