An electrical explosion in a Kanata strip mall over the weekend has forced the closure of multiple nearby businesses.
The decorations Chi Blondin had carefully hung up when she opened her Vietnamese specialty coffee and matcha café four months ago were scattered across the floor by the time her husband arrived. Moments earlier, Blondin had been sitting down to dinner with a friend when her phone rang. On the other end of the line was her staff member at Moo & Bean Cafe, calling in panic.
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“Chi, something exploded,” Blondin recalls the employee telling her.
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It was around 7 p.m. on Saturday Aug. 22, when two staff members working the closing shift heard “a very loud bang” that shook the walls. Fire investigators would later trace the blast to a hydro transformer that malfunctioned and blew.
“I asked what exploded and where, but she couldn’t answer … she was so shaken,” Blondin said. “She told me the walls were shaking and everything was starting to fall.”
Kanata residents may have heard the loud thud at about 7 p.m. on Saturday. While many might have brushed it off, Blondin said the impact is far more serious for several businesses in the Silver Seven Road commercial strip.
“We’re going to be closing for months, to be honest,” Blondin said.
