Power remains off at the Meridian Community Center (MCC) and the building remains closed to the public early Thursday evening, following the failure of an electricity transformer early Thursday afternoon, which caught on fire. The Pelham Fire Department responded with two vehicles and the facility was evacuated.
Town CAO David Cribbs expressed concern over this weekend's coming Home and Garden Show being able to proceed, its fate remaining unknown early Thursday evening.
Niagara Health also said a public meeting set for tonight has been called off.
"Due to a power outage in Pelham impacting the Meridian Community Centre, Niagara Health has cancelled tonight's community engagement session about its planned three-site hospital system," Niagara Health said in a message to PelhamToday.
Power failed across a wide area of Fonthill at around 2 p.m., affecting some 5,000 customers according to the Hydro One website. Power was restored shortly before 3 p.m.
Cribbs said he's not sure whether the transformer fire may have caused the failure, or been a result of it. A temporary generator is set to be delivered Thursday night, "but that will only power a portion of the building and so is a limited fix," said Cribbs.
This is a breaking story and will be updated as more information is available.
