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Toronto's City Hall has been evacuated after a fire broke out in the building's basement.

The "rather large" fire is in an electrical room next to a hydro vault, said Captain David Eckerman of Toronto Fire Services. The whole building has lost power. "City Hall has been completely evacuated," he said.

There were a series of booms and the lights began to flicker at about 1:30 p.m. Then there was a boom and the power went out.

Black acrid smoke poured out of a grate at the back of City Hall. The smoke continued to build as workers were evacuated and fire trucks arrived.

The fire was started when a ladder fell and hit equipment in a hydro vault, said acting platoon chief Greg Weeks.

The bangs heard when the fire started would have been the transformer shorting out , he said.

A Toronto Hydro worker at the scene was not injured but two city workers were taken to hospital for "minor smoke inhalation."

A spokeswoman for Toronto Hydro said crews are waiting to assess the damage. She could not give an estimate of when power would be restored.