A raccoon was behind the massive power outage that knocked out electricity to some 7,000 customers in downtown Toronto for hours Thursday night.

A raccoon was behind the massive power outage that knocked out electricity to some 7,000 customers in downtown Toronto for hours Thursday night.

  • Cralder@lemmy.worldEnglish
    23·
    9 months ago

    A raccoon was behind the massive power outage that knocked out electricity to some 7,000 customers in downtown Toronto for hours Thursday night.

    Hydro One said a raccoon “made contact with equipment” at a downtown station, which cut the lights for parts of the city. The raccoon’s condition is currently unknown

    Fucking gold

    • linearchaos@lemmy.worldEnglish
      9·
      9 months ago

      The raccoon’s condition is currently unknown charcoal and meatspray.

      I’ll tell you what’s wrong with it, my lad. 'E’s dead, that’s what’s wrong with it!

      No, no, 'e’s uh,…he’s resting

      Look, my lad, I know a dead parrot raccoon when I see one, and I’m looking at one right now.

      No no he’s not dead, he’s, he’s restin’! Remarkable bird mamal, the Norwegian Blue Canadian Trash Panda, idn’it, ay? Beautiful plumage!

      The plumage don’t enter into it. It’s stone dead.

      Nononono, no, no! 'E’s resting!

      All right then, if he’s restin’, I’ll wake him up!

  • Stamets@lemmy.worldEnglish
    19·
    9 months ago

    It’s pretty peak Toronto in all honesty. I mean this is the same city that set up a lil shrine for a dead raccoon that was just on the sidewalk. We’re a weird city. This isn’t even the first time it’s happened. There was another blackout in Scarborough, part of the Greater Toronto Area, that happened because of a raccoon.

  • jordanlund@lemmy.worldMEnglish
    10·
    9 months ago

    “Hydro One(opens in a new tab) said a raccoon “made contact with equipment” at a downtown station, which cut the lights for parts of the city.”

    Whoah, whoah, whoah… Raccoon OK?

    “The raccoon’s condition is currently unknown.”

    🥺

    • Cinner@lemmy.worldBEnglish
      10·
      9 months ago

      The raccoon’s condition is currently unknown.

      Dry leather with a hint of bone underneath the char.

  • moody@lemmings.worldEnglish
    9·
    9 months ago

    Does anyone else think Avenue Road is a stupid name? Who thought that was a good idea?

    • Ddub@lemmy.caEnglish
      18·
      9 months ago

      The saying goes that when the Brits were marking out Toronto the surveyor put a stake in the road and said, let’s 'ave a new road 'ere

  • spujb@lemmy.cafeEnglish
    91·
    9 months ago

    if a single raccoon can cause this much damage the power company kinda deserves heat for this lol

    • Rentlar@lemmy.caEnglish
      5·
      9 months ago

      You might not realize that a lot of the 4kV equipment they are working with in downtown Toronto is between 40 and 75 years old, and Toronto Hydro only has the budget to slowly replace them.

      • febra@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4·
        9 months ago

        They’re that old everywhere. They’re transformers. They don’t just break like that by themselves. If they work they work.

        • Rentlar@lemmy.caEnglish
          3·
          9 months ago

          Typical transformer design lifes are 20 to 40 years because they are in near continuous operation (A random source). With the downtown core increasingly being built up, the utility did put in more capacity but are also relying on the existing aging equipment to take on more load.

          Things naturally wear, weather, corrode over time, even things installed underground or in indoor vaults. Raccoon-shaped wires also strain equipment across the network, beyond the immediate failure point. There are other cases of “uniquely Toronto” problems across downtown and the 6 amalgamated boroughs that joined in 1999.