Power outage due to fire at a Hydro One station

Hydro One states power has been restored to all affected customers in Saturday’s wide-spread outage.

The power outage was caused by a fire at the Lennox Generating station in Napanee. The outage affected more than 25,000 homes and businesses in Prince Edward County, as well as outages in surrounding areas.

While some County residents had power returned quickly, others waited up to 12 hours for service to return.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency says people should discard any thawed food that has been at room temperature for two or more hours.

An unopened refrigerator will keep food cold for about four hours. A full freezer will keep food frozen for about 48 hours, while a half-full freezer only keeps things frozen for about 24 hours.

Any food in the refrigerator that has been above 4 C for more than two hours should be thrown out. There are some foods that are often implicated with food-borne illness and should be thrown away if stored above 4 C for two hours or more:

Raw or cooked meat, poultry, seafood and luncheon meats.
Casseroles, stews or soups.
Milk and soft cheeses.
Homemade mayonnaise or dressings.
Cooked pasta, potatoes or rice.
Salads made with any of these foods.

Foods that can be stored above 4 C for several days include:

Butter and margarine.
Hard or processed cheese.
Fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as olives.
Mustard, ketchup, barbecue sauce.
Salad dressings.
Peanut butter, jams and jellies.
The department also has several tips for deciding what food to keep and what to discard:

Food that has thawed, but is still cold or feels cold as if refrigerated (that is 4 C or below) may be refrozen. Raw meat or poultry should first be cooked before freezing.
Fish and shellfish should not be refrozen if they have completely thawed.
Frozen dinners, desserts and ice cream should not be refrozen.
Prepared foods may be refrozen but should be marked so they can be used as soon as possible.
If in doubt, toss it out.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency also warns that if raw food has leaked during thawing, it’s important to disinfect the area.