Thursday, September 23, 2010

Hydro worker dies in storm accident

A 27-year-old hydro worker in Port Elgin, Ont., was electrocuted Tuesday night while working on a repair as severe thunderstorms swept southern and central Ontario.

Saugeen Shores police said the Westario Power employee was working at a hydro station when he was involved in an accident just before midnight.

Reports from the scene suggest the worker was hit with 2,400 volts of electricity.

He was taken to Southampton Hospital with a chest wound and third-degree burns to the right side of his body and pronounced dead a short time later.

The Ministry of Labour and the coroner's office are investigating the death.

In the Toronto area, the storm snapped hydro poles, felled tree branches and caused some problems in areas where traffic lights malfunctioned.
Mayfield Road in Brampton was closed for safety reasons after a number of power poles came down.

By early Wednesday morning, power had been restored in most parts of the city, except for a neighbourhood stretching from Bayview Avenue in the west, Don Mills Road in the east and from Finch Avenue in the south to Steeles Avenue in the north.

Toronto Hydro emergency repair crews have been sent, but there is no estimated time for when power will be fully restored.
There are also isolated outages across Peel, Newmarket, Aurora and as far east as Peterborough.

Also Tuesday, two people were injured when a severe storm knocked down trees and left much of the Huntsville region without power.
A woman was taken to hospital with non life-threatening injuries, and a man suffered serious injuries, after a tree fell on their car in Port Sydney.

Ontario Provincial police said the storm hit quickly, downing trees and hydro wires and leaving the detachment operating on generator power.
Hydro One has restored power to a few of the 33,000 customers affected, but some won't get their electricity back until Wednesday afternoon.
Environment Canada said a line of thunderstorms hit the region with wind gusts of up to 100 kilometres an hour and heavy downpours.


Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2010/09/22/toronto-storm.html?ref=rss#ixzz10OshyqzX

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