UPDATE: Power has been restored across Belleville following an earlier outage that knocked out power to some 5,000 homes and businesses.
The outage was believed to have been caused by a high voltage wire snapping and falling across the intersection of Sidney St. and Bell Boulevard, blocking that roadway to traffic.
Traffic lights were out for a couple hours at many intersections in the city, causing severe backups and several businesses had to close early due to the outage.
ORIGINAL STORY
A power outage has taken out electricity for a wide swath of Belleville homes and businesses.
Elexicon Energy is showing about 5,000 residences are off the grid due to the outage, which occurred around 2:20 p.m. Friday.
This spans an area from Highway 401 in the northern part of the city to Highway 2 in the south.
A report to InQuinte.ca is indicating a high voltage wire snapped and is blocking the intersection of Sidney St. and Bell Blvd.
That stretch of road between Sidney at Tracey St. and Bell Blvd. has been shut down until the wire gets fixed and the scene is cleared.
Belleville Police stated Friday afternoon that many intersections in the city are currently without power and traffic lights.
Officials say to please proceed with caution and treat all non-functioning traffic lights as four-way stops.
Drivers are asked to avoid the entire length of Bell Boulevard until further notice, as traffic is severely backed up.
Belleville firefighters and police are on scene in that area, and hydro crews have been dispatched to deal with the situation.
