No injuries reported after hydro vault explodes in downtown Toronto

By News Staff and Faiza Amin

A hydro vault exploded in downtown Toronto on Friday afternoon, but no injuries were reported.

The explosion occurred around 5 p.m. and police and fire crews were met with white billowing smoke when they arrived on scene.

“Suddenly I heard a big bang, very bad noise, and lots of smoke is coming up from underground,” said taxi driver Mike Hazrati, who captured the moment of the explosion on his dashcam.

“[There] was one lady, I think [she was on] top of the smoke, and she ran — everybody ran.”

Crews determined the explosion had occurred in a hydro vault when the equipment failed. Two of the feeders — thick cables that distribute electricity — were affected.

Although there was smoke underground, there was no fire.

At least one building lost power, and some businesses had to close early.

Toronto Hydro is still investigating what caused the equipment failure.

“We still have to do our damage assessment, so we’re unclear about the level of damage and exactly what caused the outage,” said spokesman Brian Buchan.

Toronto Hydro was working to restore power to at least one building.

Another hydro vault exploded in Toronto’s financial district in May, also with no injuries.

“It’s not a common occurrence,” Buchan said. “Unfortunately, two of them have occurred within a short period of time however.”

Crews worked through the evening to replace the damaged equipment. It wasn’t clear how long it would take.

Watch Hazrati’s dashcam video below or click here.

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