Toronto Hydro works to restore remaining pockets of power outages

The end is in sight after a widespread outage knocked out power for thousands of customers in the GTA.

At its peak, the number of outages hit about 87,000 customers in Toronto — about 250,000 people. By 7:30 a.m. on Thursday, Toronto Hydro was working to restore isolated pockets of outages, with about 225 customers still in the dark.

Most of the lasting outages are in the city’s north and west ends.

The power outage was caused by the accumulation of road salt mixed with the “difficult and terrible winter in Toronto,” said Brian Buchan of Toronto Hydro in an interview with 680News. Extra salt is being used in the city after a 37-day stretch of cold weather, and salty water is an excellent electrical conductor.

“We have a washing program that washes the top of the poles and the lines so that this type of thing doesn’t happen,” says Buchan. “But it’s not effective if the temperatures are terribly cold.” The poles and the lines freeze when temperatures drop to the -20 C range.

Click here to see Toronto Hydro’s outages map.

Toronto Hydro said some hydro poles burned to the ground.

One hydro pole burned down at Belfield Road and knocked out power to the traffic light at Martin Grove Road and Highway 409.

TTC issues

The TTC also had issues on Wednesday. Subway service was suspended around 1 a.m. from Warden to Kennedy stations on Line 2 following hydro problems at Kennedy. It didn’t resume until about 12:20 p.m.

Service on the SRT was also stopped due to signal-related problems at the Kennedy SRT Station.

Power updates outside Toronto

Veridian Connections restored power to all its customers before midnight.

Click here to see Veridian’s outages map.

All PowerStream customers have had their hydro restored.

Weather conditions and road salt sprayed on equipment led to pole fires and other equipment issues for the power provider.

With files from Kevin Misener, Melanie Ng, Jaime Pulfer and Alanna Kelly