2 injured in downtown explosion as power outages reported across Montreal

Two men are in hospital following an explosion at a building in downtown Montreal Wednesday.

The incident happened in an electrical room on the corner of de Bleury and Ste-Catherine streets.

“The first man suffered minor burns, but on a large portion of the upper body, we’re talking about the face, the arms and the thorax,” said Stefan Overhoff, chief of operations at Urgences-Santé.

“The second man has burns on the upper body, but his injuries are more serious. He is in critical condition.”

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Earlier in the day, about 40,000 people were without power in Montreal and the South Shore, according to Hydro-Québec.

According to Serge Tsoto, spokesperson for Hydro-Québec, the site of the explosion, at 1400 de Bleury Street, was not the source of the outage.

The outage started on the South Shore.

According to sources at Hydro-Québec, the men were probably in the wrong place at the wrong time when the power came back on.

Earlier Wednesday, the public utility tweeted out that teams were deployed to reestablish service.

CNESST is onsite to investigate the incident.

There are currently no weather alerts on effect for the Montreal region, but rain — with a risk of thunderstorm — is expected Wednesday afternoon leading into Thursday.

Southwest winds are expected to hit 20 km/h, gusting to 40.

—with files from the Canadian Press