In the heart of Windsor, Ontario, emergency teams are focused on resolving a widespread electricity outage emanating from the downtown core. The cause of this disturbance traces back to an unfortunate incident where a car plummeted into a sinkhole, wreaking havoc on the underlying utility infrastructure.
The incident, which unfolded on a Tuesday afternoon, took place in an alley wedged between Park Street, Ouellette Avenue, and Pelissier Street. Windsor Police Service has reinforced that the area will continue to remain inaccessible due to the fallout from a blown transformer.
Enwin, the responsible utility provider, pointed out a vehicle that had been parked on a hydro vault. This unfortunate decision led to the crumbling of the vault’s grate and subsequently, the pavement itself. Jim Brown, the Vice President of Hydro Operation at Enwin, clarified that the grate was not designed to withstand the load of a parked vehicle. While there had once been barriers in place, they were conspicuously absent at the time of the incident.
Current information from Enwin’s outage map shows an impact on 292 customers in the downtown area. In addition, 14 more customers were affected in the Walkerville area, although their power has since been restored.
Mayor Drew Dilkens took to social media to articulate the city’s plight and stated that both hydro and communication services have been compromised. He promised that more updates will be forthcoming.
Jim Brown from Enwin also commented on the recovery procedure saying, “We have to extract the car from the vault first, then evaluate the full extent of the damage. From our initial assessments, it looks like the entire vault infrastructure is damaged and will have to be replaced completely.”
The story is dynamically developing, and more updates will be revealed in due course.
