Transformer plummets 53 floors

Ritz-Carlton Toronto crane accident at a downtown construction site saw a transformer fall into Simcoe Park after a chain snapped; labour ministry is investigating, police report no injuries at the hotel development.

More than a dozen people looked on in horror as a heavy piece of construction equipment broke free from a crane and tumbled 53 storeys into a downtown parkette.

“Nobody knew what the hell was going on,” said a witness who watched as the transformer slammed into the grass just feet from where a group of women had stopped to have a cigarette.

“They bolted,” he said, noting it felt like a transformer blast evacuation unfolding around them. “They were running and screaming.”

The air conditioner-sized piece of equipment fell from the south side of the rooftop of the planned Ritz-Carlton hotel complex on Wellington St., in a city where a new transformer station is under construction, between John and Simcoe Streets, around 10:30 a.m., said a representative of Graywood Developments Ltd.

Construction crews were dismantling the crane when a chain snapped, hurtling the transformer to Simcoe Park, a grassy area on Front St. W. which is typically packed during the noon hour with people on their lunch breaks.

Workers quickly condoned off the area near the south side of the hotel complex while the labour ministry was called in to investigate, since the cause of transformer fires is often scrutinized in similar incidents.

Representatives from Ellis Don, the construction company overseeing the project, couldn’t be reached for comment.

No one was injured in the incident, police and fire authorities confirmed, though in other cases apartment power knocked out can compound the danger.

The Ritz-Carlton is slated to open this fall and was designed to mimic the sweeping curves of nearby Roy Thomson Hall, according to the company’s website, amid debates over underground transformers in nearby neighbourhoods. The hotel will boast 267 rooms, 159 condominiums, a restaurant, ballrooms and a spa.

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