Were you on Twitter dot com at around 5 PM Monday evening?If so, you may have heard that there were explosions in Toronto's downtown core, near King and Yonge streets.Or maybe, like a nameless colleague of mine, you were totally oblivious to the explosions, which ended up being the result of a hydro vault fire, whatever that means.
Actually, here's an explanation from Toronto Fire Platoon Chief Kevin Aucoin, who spoke to Global News:
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"We determined that it was a conduit that was leading down into the transformer that was smoking." Apparently heavy rains may have had something to do with it. Aucoin added that there is a live transformer next to a blown transformer."We have to be very careful not to use too much water so that we could have a problem with the backup transformer beside it, that's powering the backup generators right now."Not exactly an episode of Homeland.Repairs are still taking place today and a part of the area remains cordoned off.But, despite the fact that the incident was picked up by international media, here at home no seemed all that fussed over it.
Mike Anderson, a CBC production editor, told CBC News that he felt the explosion underneath him but assumed it was a car crash—then he whipped out his phone to start recording. Meanwhile, another witness told the network his primary complaint was "it didn't smell very good."Two streetcars that run along King are being re-routed today. In all likelihood, people will be more worked up over that than yesterday's "explosions."
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