It took four full days but crews have finally restored power to the downtown core after an underground explosion and fire took down the system last weekend.

Crews worked around the clock since Saturday to replace about three kilometres of damaged cable.

The power outage affected about 5000 residents in Calgary’s downtown core and about 1,000 businesses.

Gianna Manes, ENMAX CEO, said crews turned the power back on at 5 a.m. Thursday. "The system is stable, but just as a reminder, the system has been completely rebuilt so there may be some bumps yet today. Things are looking strong so far but in case we encounter any of these bumps, we'll be working hard to make sure they're repaired."

Shaw also suffered cable damage in the fire and says 2500 clients are still offline and about 500 phone customers are without landline service.

"So if that's you, make sure that you have alternate arrangements to contact 911 if you need to, whether that's a cell phone of through a neighbour," said Mayor Nenshi.

He says the emergency rebuild work at the site of the fire has been completed but crews will remain in the area to finish up so motorists should watch for lanes closures and road restrictions in the coming days.

"City crews have been working hard to restore power to the traffic signals and all of the intersections and the LRT platforms, they've all been running on generators so we're disconnecting the gererators, putting them back on the grid and that work is pretty much done," said Nenshi.

He says they will close the information centre at Mewata Armoury at 9:00 p.m. but the EOC will continue to monitor the sitation.

Information for returning residents and businesses:

  • Re-entry checklists for returning residents, building owners/managers and commercial businesses are available on Calgary.ca.
  • For information on troubleshooting your telephone, cable TV or Internet service contact Shaw.
  • Citizens who require any additional social assistance support should contact 2-1-1.
  • Spoiled food items that are securely bagged to prevent leaks can be discarded in your facility’s usual garbage collection bin. If that bin is full, contact your property manager for bin removal or emptying. City of Calgary collection schedules are not affected, and regular pickup will occur according to your normal schedule. Should you have questions regarding private garbage collection service, please contact your property manager.
  •  Citizens or business owners/operators with concerns about their building should contact their building operator.
  • Now that power has been restored, the Information Centre at Mewata Armoury will be closed at 9 p.m. this evening.

More information on reentry checklists for residents and business owners is available on the City of Calgary website.