◊ This is part of the ‘history’ series of articles ◊
Toronto has been blacked-out many times, most notably in 1965 and 2003 for which I have separate articles. The following additional incidents are worthy of mention.
Richview transformer fire March 18, 2011
A transformer failure occurred at 4:49 p.m. with a fire commencing afterward. There were no injuries or health and safety issues reported as a result of the incident. Power was briefly interrupted at Pearson International airport but no flights were delayed.
At 5:42 p.m. Toronto Hydro successfully transferred all load supplied by these transformers to other stations, restoring power to all affected customers. The fire was extinguished at 8:40 p.m. Two out of six transformers were destroyed at the station.
Manby Transformer Station explosion and fire Monday July 5, 2010
An oil circuit breaker failure at Manby transformer station in the west end of Toronto at 4:45pm left 240,000 customers in the dark for more than 4 hours.
Root cause
Equipment failure, fire
The Toronto Blackout of Wednesday April 25, 1990
A transformer explosion shortly after 8pm on Wednesday April 25, 1990 at Toronto Leaside Transformer Station caused a fire and equipment damage resulting in an extended outage to approximately 100,000 homes and businesses. Customers were out for two or three hours as circuits were powered from alternate sources.
Notable impact was felt by more than 35,000 baseball fans who had watched the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Cleveland Indians at the Toronto Skydome that evening and found themselves in the midst of chaos downtown.
In spite of how impactive this incident was, there is surprisingly little information available about it.
Root cause – equipment failure, fire
The culprit was a 115,000 volt oil-filled instrument transformer that suffered an internal fault. The resulting short circuit drew the full energy of the 115kV system into the transformer, creating an explosion and fire. Bits of metal and porcelain were hurled across the station along with a spray of insulting oil. Fortunately there were no serious injuries.
I am unable to post any pictures of the event due to copyright restrictions, however, here are links to pictures from The Toronto Public Library archives:
Ontario Hydro worker sprays hydro lines coated with oil after the transformer explosion
Drivers and pedestrians made their way slowly and carefully along Front street
Man directed traffic at Yonge and Bloor Streets for an hour and a half before police could attend
Keep your flashlights handy, check the batteries regularly and have a plan.
Derek
