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.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    25
    ·
    edit-2
    11 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.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      9
      ·
      edit-2
      11 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!

      • atx_aquarian@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        11 months ago

        Nah, we’ll only splurge for that when the equipment serves at least eight thousand customers. Seven thousand is just not enough to justify it.

  • Stamets@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    20
    ·
    11 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.worldM
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    10
    ·
    11 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.worldB
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      11
      ·
      11 months ago

      The raccoon’s condition is currently unknown.

      Dry leather with a hint of bone underneath the char.

  • spujb@lemmy.cafe
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    9
    ·
    edit-2
    11 months ago

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

    • Rentlar
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      11 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.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        11 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
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          11 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.

  • moody@lemmings.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    9
    ·
    11 months ago

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

    • Ddub
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      18
      ·
      11 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