Power fully restored, ER still closed at General campus after fire

Power has been fully restored at The Ottawa Hospital's General campus on Smyth Road, three days after a transformer fire forced the relocation of dozens of patients and shut power to parts of the hospital, but its emergency department remains closed.

"After a tremendous amount of work from the facilities team, supporting consultants, and many others throughout the hospital, we are now able to lift the Code Grey Power," a hospital spokesperson said in a Monday afternoonnews release.

Around 3:45 p.m. Friday, a hydro vault onthe hospital'sthird floor caught firewhile the hospital was in the process of replacing it.

Although no patients were on the third floor, as the space is devoted to mechanical works that feed the rest of the building, about 100 patients in the floors above were forced to relocatewithinthe building or to other facilities.

Among them were 17 babies who were transferred by firefightersand hospital staff next door to CHEO, eastern Ontario's children's hospital in Ottawa.

The General campusremains ina Code Orange as of Monday afternoon, which allows itto divert patients to other emergency departments, and the hospital said it's working toward restoringnormal operations.

Ottawa Morning11:06Fire at The Ottawa Hospital's General campus leads to transfer of 17 babies

How some of the smallest patients at The Ottawa Hospital's General campus were moved out of the neonatal intensive care unit during the recent transformer fire.