Woman rescued after blast blows off manhole covers
Electrical vault blast blows off manhole covers, knocks out power downtown
Rescuers pulled an elderly woman from below ground after an explosion popped manhole covers and knocked out power Wednesday in downtown Edmonton.
An underground electrical vault blast blew open manholes near 97 Avenue and 106 Street around 7:30 a.m., said Edmonton Fire Rescue Services spokesperson Maya Filipovic.
Rescuers found the woman — suffering what appeared to be a fractured ankle — about 45 minutes later using thermal imaging. She was about 3.6 metres down a hole. It took rescuers about half an hour to get her out. She was believed to have fallen in.
“The manhole itself looks to be about 100 kg, so it would take a significant amount of energy to blow it off and fracture it like it did,” said Brad Hoekstra, chief of special operations with Edmonton Fire Rescue Services.
A hazardous materials team first had to ensure high voltage lines running through the vault were not live and that the atmosphere in the hole was not devoid of oxygen or contained an explosive before a rescuer could go down, put the woman in a harness and pull her out.
The woman was taken to hospital, where she was listed in stable condition, said EMS spokesperson Alex Campbell.
“To have that patient out just 25 minutes after our technical rescue team was here, I think we did fantastic work today under the circumstances,” Hoekstra said.
Mansur Bitar, Epcor’s director of distribution, said crews responded around 8 a.m. to isolate the power.
The “energy release” came from a switching cubicle which houses high-voltage power cables and allows cables to be routed in different directions on the network. The switching cubicle was adjacent to the manhole.
Epcor spokesman Tim le Riche said power had been partially restored Wednesday, with customers in Park Plaza expected to have power back within 24 hours.
Crews were still working to determine what caused the blast.