EDMONTON/630 CHED
7/11/2012
The City of Calgary has enacted it's Municipal Emergency Plan after a downtown fire at the Shaw Court building which houses three of our sister radio stations - - knocked out 911 service to tens of thousands of people.
The plan calls for an emergency operations centre to be staffed - - and for decisions to be made from there.
Some heard a loud bang and then the power went out shortly after one o'clock this afternoon with thick smoke pouring from the 13th floor of the building, which contains a generator.
Corus Entertainment Regional General Manager Garry McKenzie says they're just happy no one was hurt...
"Anyone that is in the downtown core that is on the Shaw telephony system cannot call 9-1-1 at this time. You cannot use the 9-1-1 system; you cannot call 9-1-1 on the Shaw telephone system in the downtown core of the city of Calgary. That's roughly thirty thousand customers."
Calgary E-M-S says a system that tells its drivers which hospital to go to is down, so for now paramedics will be taking patients to the closest hospital.
There's no word on the cause of the fire, or when things might get back to normal with the city's emergency services.(scb/dm)
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