Fifty poles caught fire last night
The head of Toronto Hydro Anthony Haines says that last night’s little ice pellet event combined with salt-covered hydro poles to cause 50 utility standards to catch fire and burn to junk in Toronto. As explained by Mr Haines to CP24’s Stephen LeDrew it was “a bit of ice and a whole bunch of salt at the top of these poles” that caused arcing, an electrical phenomenon where electricity leaps through the air between two good conductors. Salt water is an excellent conductor. The poles were well-caked with salt from days of road salting Thousands of residents in and around the city remain without power this morning after a messy mix of precipitation caused widespread outages on Tuesday evening. As of 10 a.m. Toronto Hydro said that approximately 12,000 to 14,000 customers in Toronto were without power, with areas in North York and Etobicoke the hardest hit. Hydro is offering a educated guess that those still without power may have it by 6 p.m.
