Raccoon blamed for outage that left thousands without power in Toronto

Thousands of Toronto Hydro customers werewithout power on Thursday evening thanks to a raccoon that made contact withHydro One equipment at a downtown station, the utilities say.

The outage began at about 7:40 p.m. but all power was restored by about 10:20 p.m.,according to Toronto Hydro.

At its peak at about 9:30 p.m., about 7,000 Toronto Hydro customers were affected.

The utility said customers in the following boundaries were affected:St. Clair Avenue West to Gerrard Street West and Avenue Road to the Don Valley Parkway.

Hydro One said on X, formerly Twitter,that the outage wason its transmission system that affects Toronto Hydro.

"Crews have determined that a raccoon made contact with our equipment at a downtown Toronto station," Hydro One said.

Toronto Fire Services said on Xthat it responded to elevator rescues in about seven buildings. No injuries were reported.