King St. in Toronto reopens and being closed by hydro vault fire

TORONTO – A key route through Toronto’s financial district reopened to traffic late Tuesday night, about 18 hours after it was closed to traffic because of a hydro vault fire on Monday afternoon.

Firefighters extinguished the remains of a smouldering fire in the vault on Tuesday morning, but King St. west of Yonge St. had remained closed until about 11:30 p.m.

Capt. Adrian Ratushniak of Toronto Fire Services earlier said fire crews would remain on scene as a precaution while hydro crews began the work of replacing a transformer damaged in the blaze.

Toronto Hydro had said crews would have to pump water out of the vault and dry the equipment before beginning repairs.

There were no injuries in the incident, which included several explosion and thick smoke billowing from grates.

Ratushniak says crews initially had to fight the fire with carbon dioxide gas because dumping water on the energized hydro vault would have been dangerous. They were eventually able to extinguish the blaze with water.