Blaze interrupts shopping at Richmond & Bay

Fire sparks outage throughout Downtown Yonge

By Will Tremain –

A transformer fire in an underground electrical room near city hall forced Toronto Hydro to cut power to the downtown financial district on March 24.

The blaze broke out about 1:15 p.m., sending acrid black smoke billowing from sidewalk grates on Richmond St. W. near Bay St.

Smoke entered The Bay department store and caused an evacuation of the building, which was subsequently closed to the public. At about 3:30 p.m., power was cut off to buildings in the surrounding financial district. Downtown locations as far east as Jarvis St. and as far north as Dundas St. W. experienced power outages.

Police closed two blocks of Bay St. and Richmond St. W. between Yonge and Bay, and firefighters from five trucks worked to dampen the blaze. The resulting traffic jams clogged Yonge St.

Kostas Petheriotis from Toronto was shopping for men’s fragrance at The Bay at the time of the fire.

“There was smoke coming up into the store. After five to ten minutes it was evacuated. They did instruct people to go upstairs and to go to the exit, at about 1:30. One of the staff told me it was an electrical fire,” said Petheriotis.

Trevor Trotter is fire chief for District 33 downtown, and worked on scene with the firefighters. Trotter said the fire department were called in at 1:24 p.m., and asked The Bay to evacuate.

“The main risk is smoke inhalation,” said Trotter as he supervised the crew.

Firefighters suppressed the blaze by covering the street grates with damp tarps and injecting carbon dioxide into the electrical room vault.

Security staff at The Bay refused to comment on the store evacuation and closure.