Hydro One, Toronto’s largest utility company, is looking for ways to make sure the city’s unofficial mascot stays out of transmission stations after a raccoon knocked out power to thousands of people in the downtown area. Officials say about 7,000 people were without power for more than two hours Thursday night after a lone raccoon made contact with a transformer at a transmission station. Crews were able to confirm that the outage was caused by the raccoon because the animal was found dead on-site when they arrived. When that happens, the system operates as designed in order to protect it from further damage. Animals are often attracted to the warm emanating from power stations, and sometimes they cause outages. While some people found the situation funny, those trapped in elevators weren’t laughing.
