Explosions blamed on fire in Hydro vault

TORONTO• A series of explosions beneath aside walk grate in Toronto’s financial district on Monday sent thick smoke into the street, forcing evacuations and effectively shutting down one of the city’s — and Canada’s — busiest intersections in the middle of afternoon rush hour.

It appears the blasts came from a fire in a hydro vault, which one Toronto Fire spokesman described as an underground concrete room with a transformer inside that powers the Royal Bank of Canada tower near King Street and Yonge Street.

Police said no injuries had been reported.

At around 5 p.m ., Mike Anderson had just walked over the grate seconds before the first explosion. There was no warning — no rumbling or smoke or smell, he said. “It was literally just, ‘Boom’.”

“I thought maybe it was a car accident — but I mean, no car accident I’ ve ever heard before,” he said. “I saw brown smoke coming up. The grate’s rattling. It exploded maybe three or four more times.”

Anderson, an editor with CBC who works in the area, started filming on his phone. The videos show smoke billowing out of the grate, with intermittent blasts that popped the grate up as if it had been punched by a giant hand from underneath.

“It was loud but nothing crazy,” he said. “It wasn’t earpiercing.”

Capt. Adrian Ratushniak, a Toronto Fire spokesman, said firefighters on scene reported hearing continuous blasts from inside the hydro vault. The vault is underneath the sidewalk outside t he Royal Bank Building, which was reporting power loss after the explosion, said Florence Gabriel of Toronto Hydro. “So that vault likely supplies power to that particular building,” she said.

Heavy smoke billowed through King Street and snaked down into the PATH system, an underground network of walkways for downtown commuters.

Firefighters weren’t able to use water to douse the fire. “It’s too dangerous if you’re putting water on electricity,” Ratushniak said. Instead, they funnelled carbon dioxide into the vault from a nearby fire station — effectively suffocating the flames. As of 7:30 p.m ., the fire was considered to be “controlled.”

The incident shut down a nearby subway station and caused several streetcars to take detours. Police cruisers blocked off streets in the area and officers were seen wearing surgical masks. People were evacuated from both the PATH system and the Royal Bank building at 20 King West, Ratushniak said.

The cause of the fire was still unclear Monday evening.

The only thing that could be flammable inside the vault is insulation on the wiring, Ratushniak said.

“You’ve got concrete, copper wire and steel — there’s nothing else to burn.”