Major buildings at UTSG have been evacuated due to a power outage hitting a portion of downtown Toronto, including much of the campus. Toronto Hydro responded on Twitter shortly after 7:00 pm, saying that it was aware of and responding to the situation.

U of T’s ITS status system confirmed the power outage at 7:41 pm, saying that the school is “currently experiencing a large power outage affecting power to multiple buildings on the St George campus.”

“The primary administrative data centre continues to run on emergency backup power and central services hosted in the data centre appear to be operating normally.”

Robarts Library and EJ Pratt Library were both evacuated due to a fire alarm. The Sandford Fleming Building, Convocation Hall, and Gerstein Library were also reported to have lost power.

According to Toronto Hydro, the power outage is affecting downtown Toronto between Davenport Road to the Gardiner Expressway, and from Ossington Street East to Church Street.

SCREENSHOT VIA TORONTO HYDRO

The University of Toronto Libraries website is also currently inaccessible, though it is unclear whether this is related to the power outage.

U of T student Sohrab Naderi was writing an exam in Sidney Smith Hall when the power outage occurred, and described having to complete the test in the dark.

“It was pretty amusing,” he wrote to The Varsity. “The professor said we could take our phone flashlights out to complete it. He gave us fifteen extra minutes to finish it, so I can’t complain.”

The Varsity has reached out to U of T Media Relations for comment.

This is a developing story. More to come.