Transmission Station Fire Triggers Widespread Power Outage in Downtown Toronto

At approximately 11:45 a.m. on Tuesday, May 26 2026, a small fire ignited at Hydro One’s Terauley Transmission Station near Dundas and Bay Streets. The incident caused an immediate loss of electricity to the core of Toronto’s financial district, spanning the area between Yonge Street and University Avenue south of Dundas Street. Power was first reported out just before noon, darkening electronic billboards outside the Eaton Centre, disabling numerous traffic signals, and affecting a range of public and private facilities.

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• 11:45 a.m. – Fire reported at Terauley Transmission Station.

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• 12:00 p.m. – Outage spreads; traffic lights cease operation.

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• 12:00 p.m. – Eaton Centre billboards go dark.

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• 12:30 p.m. – Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) issues evacuation email to students and staff.

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• 2:30 p.m. – Toronto Hydro confirms power restored to a “large portion” of customers.

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• 4:00 p.m. – Toronto Hydro announces full restoration across the affected zone.

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• 4:30 p.m. – SickKids Hospital posts on social media that power is restored and services are operating.

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• Customers: Approximately 1,360 customers experienced outage at the peak.

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• Traffic: Toronto Police directed motorists to treat all affected intersections as four-way stops.

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• Commercial: Electronic billboards at the Eaton Centre were blank for several hours.

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• Education: TMU buildings—including RAC, JOR, POD, LIB, TRS, SLC, YNG, and YDI—were evacuated; classes, labs, and exams were paused.

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• Healthcare: SickKids Hospital reported a temporary power failure across all buildings, later restored. Toronto General Hospital indicated no widespread patient-care impacts.

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• Toronto Hydro issued an apology, thanking customers for patience while crews restored service.

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• TMU warned that the utility failure could compromise fire-detection and sprinkler systems, ordering immediate evacuation of affected buildings.

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• Toronto Police Service advised drivers to treat the non-functioning traffic lights as four-way stops.

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• SickKids Hospital confirmed power restoration and continued operation of the Emergency Department and clinics.

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• Toronto General Hospital stated that patient care remained uninterrupted despite the outage.

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• Hydro One announced an ongoing assessment of damage to the transmission station.

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Media accounts differ on hospital impacts. The Canadian Press noted “no major impacts” at two Toronto hospitals, while SickKids explicitly reported a brief loss of power before restoration. Toronto General’s statement aligns with the former view, asserting no widespread patient-care effects. No detailed information on the fire’s cause or the extent of equipment damage has been released, leaving a gap in public understanding of infrastructure vulnerability.

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• “We sincerely apologize for the disruption this outage caused and thank our customers and the community for their patience and understanding while crews worked to safely restore service,” — Toronto Hydro

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• “Evacuation is required because a utilities failure of this nature may compromise the building’s life-safety systems (i.e. fire-detection and sprinkler systems),” — Toronto Metropolitan University, email to students

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• “Power has been restored and teams are assessing impacts,” — SickKids Hospital, social-media post

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• “Care is continuing and the hospital is operating, including the Emergency Department and clinics.” — SickKids Hospital, social-media post

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• “The Hospital for Sick Children says it briefly lost power but it's since been restored, while the Toronto General Hospital website says there are no widespread patient care impacts as it deals with the outage.” — Canadian Press (quoting SickKids)

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Hydro One and Toronto Hydro have pledged continued inspections of the Terauley facility and surrounding network components. Municipal authorities plan to review traffic-signal redundancy and emergency-evacuation protocols for downtown institutions. TMU and the affected hospitals will assess the resilience of life-safety systems, with potential upgrades to mitigate future utility failures.

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