Hello, dear animal friends. What has happened in Canada is not wasted.
Much of Toronto has recently gone dark due to a major blackout triggered by an unexpected culprit: a raccoon. This little intruder, in a moment of misdirected curiosity, made contact with the equipment of a power station in the center of this major Canadian city.
The nocturnal adventure of this small animal left approximately 7,000 homes without power for hours, plunging important parts of downtown Toronto into unexpected darkness during the night of last Thursday, February 1.
Hydro One, the affected company, and Toronto Hydro rushed to inform residents through X of the extent of the outage, which extended from St. Clair Avenue W to Gerrard Street W, and from Avenue Road to Don Valley Parkway. Both companies worked side by side to restore service, trying to return normality to the city. The power supply was completely restored around 10:30 p.m., after almost three hours of blackout.
During the outage, emergency services, including Toronto Fire, had to respond to multiple elevator rescue calls. The lack of backup power in some small buildings exacerbated the problem, said Toronto Fire Capt. Deepak Chagger.
Raccoons are extraordinarily cunning and adaptive creatures that have demonstrated an exceptional ability to function and thrive in urban environments. These creatures, if the circumstances arise, can cause situations of this type due to their characteristics and abilities.
For example, raccoons are very intelligent animals. There are studies that demonstrate their ability to solve complex problems and remember solutions for years. This intelligence allows them to interact with human-made objects and systems in ways that other animals cannot. Furthermore, they are extremely curious and can easily become interested in electrical equipment on the street.
This wouldn’t get any worse if it weren’t for the fact that they also have great manipulative skills. In this sense, they have extremely dexterous front legs, with fingers almost as agile as those of humans, allowing them to pick locks, unscrew lids and, in some cases, interact with electrical equipment that is not properly secured.
