Emergency Electrician in Calgary
Fire, smoke or someone hurt? Call 911 first. A burning smell, a sparking outlet, a breaker that won't stay on or half the building gone dark: call 825-561-7544. The same number takes after-hours emergency calls. We make the fault safe first, find what caused it, then repair it properly, in Calgary and towns within 100 km.
- One number for regular and after-hours emergency calls: 825-561-7544
- Safety first: the fault is isolated before anything else is touched
- Straight advice on the phone about whether you need us, ENMAX or 911
- Root-cause diagnosis instead of resetting the breaker and leaving
- Permit pulled when an emergency repair alters wiring or the service
- Homes, businesses and acreages in Calgary and towns within 100 km
What counts as an electrical emergency
Each of the following means heat, sparking or water is already where it shouldn't be. It can get worse without warning, so don't wait for business hours. You smell hot plastic or burning near an outlet, switch, fixture or the panel. You see sparks or scorch marks, or a cover plate is too hot to leave your hand on. The panel buzzes, crackles or sizzles. Part of your home or unit is dark while the rest of the street has power. A breaker trips again the moment you reset it, or won't reset at all. Water has reached receptacles, fixtures or the panel after a burst pipe, sump failure or flood. A storm has damaged the mast, meter or service line. Lights flicker and dim while something hums. By contrast, one dead plug that comes back when you reset its GFCI, or a bulb that won't light, can wait for a regular repair visit.
Electrician, ENMAX or 911: who to call first
Call 911 for fire, smoke you can't trace, anyone who has been shocked, or a power line that is down, sparking, burning, or has been dug up or exposed; ENMAX's own guidance is to call 911 for those lines. If the whole street is dark, streetlights included, it's an outage: report it to the ENMAX Power Trouble Line at 403-514-6100. ENMAX serves the City of Calgary and parts of Rocky View County and Tsuut'ina Nation, and lists FortisAlberta's line, 310-WIRE (310-9473), for outages outside Calgary. Smell gas? That isn't an electrical call. Leave the building without touching light switches or appliances, then call ATCO from outside or from a neighbour's: 403-245-7222 in Calgary, 1-800-511-3447 elsewhere in Alberta. Call us when the problem is on your side of the meter: the neighbours have power, your main breaker is on, and something in your panel, wiring, outlets or equipment is failing. Not sure? Call 825-561-7544, describe it, and we'll tell you straight which of the three you need.
What to do while you wait
Get people, not equipment, out of harm's way first. If the panel is on a dry floor and isn't hot, smoking or sparking, switch off the breaker for the affected circuit; if you can't tell which one, switch off the main. Don't open the panel, touch a wet one, or walk through standing water to reach it: leave it, get everyone out and call. Stop resetting a breaker that keeps tripping, because it is cutting power to a real fault each time. Don't plug anything back into an outlet that sparked or scorched, and keep children and pets away from it. During an outage, ENMAX suggests unplugging computers and appliances, leaving one light switched on so you'll know when power returns, and never trying to clear wires or debris from power lines. Then jot down what you saw and heard, and when. Those details shorten the diagnosis.
When only your building is dark: cable faults and damaged services
If your power is out or flickering while the neighbours are fine, ENMAX says it may be a cable fault: a damaged service cable feeding just your property. Don't try to find it or dig for it. Call the ENMAX Power Trouble Line at 403-514-6100; their crew locates the approximate spot and, when possible, connects temporary partial power. ENMAX repairs the cable beyond your property line at no charge, but its crews don't repair cables on private property. There, the owner hires a certified electrician to get the permits, confirm the fault location, coordinate the disconnect and reconnect, and uncover, repair and backfill the line. The City of Calgary also requires that a damaged electrical service on a residential, commercial or industrial property be repaired by a licensed, registered electrical contractor. ENMAX recommends asking your insurer whether your policy covers that private-side repair.
Make it safe tonight, fix it properly after
An emergency visit has two jobs, and they aren't always finished in the same trip. The first is making the site safe: isolating the damaged circuit or equipment, checking that nothing else is running hot, and restoring power to everything that can safely have it back. The second is the permanent repair, which may need parts, daylight access, a permit or a utility disconnect that can't happen at night. When we can, both get done on the first visit. When they can't, we leave the fault isolated, explain in plain terms what failed and what it will take to fix, and book the repair with you. We won't hide a damaged connection behind a new cover plate just to get you through the night. Repairs that alter wiring or the service are done under a permit, so the work is on the record.
Emergencies at shops, offices and warehouses
Most of our work is commercial, so a business losing power or lighting mid-shift is familiar ground. Typical calls include a tenant unit that's dark while the rest of the building is lit, a main breaker or feeder that has failed, burnt terminations on equipment, lighting down across a warehouse aisle or sales floor, and water from a roof leak reaching fixtures. In a multi-tenant building, call the property manager as well: the base-building service and a tenant's panel are often separate responsibilities, and the fix may involve both. We work around whatever has to keep running, such as coolers, freezers or a server closet, and get safe power back to the areas that can take it while the permanent repair is arranged.
When an emergency points to a bigger fix
Some emergencies are one-off failures; others are symptoms. Breakers that keep letting go on an older Federal Pioneer panel, connections overheating in a home built between about 1965 and 1975, when aluminum branch wiring was common, a surge that took out the furnace board and the TV at once, or a panel with no room left for today's loads: these tend to come back. Once the immediate danger is handled, we'll tell you whether the cause is local or systemic, and whether a panel upgrade, aluminum wiring remediation or whole-home surge protection belongs on your list. You decide what happens next and when. The emergency call itself covers making things safe and fixing what failed.
Hours, pricing and reaching us fast
Our office hours are Monday to Friday, 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., and after-hours emergency calls go to the same number: 825-561-7544. For anything urgent, phone rather than email or use the web form. Web enquiries are answered within about 12 hours, which suits a quote and is far too slow for a scorched outlet. We don't publish prices, because an emergency can be a loose connection or a burnt-out service. On site, we explain what we found, what making it safe involves and what the full repair costs, and you approve the price before the repair begins. Save the number in your phone today, so you're never searching for an electrician by flashlight.
We take emergency calls from homes and businesses across Calgary and from towns and acreages within about 100 km, including Airdrie, Cochrane, Chestermere, Okotoks, Strathmore, High River, Langdon, Crossfield, Carstairs, Bragg Creek, Rocky View County and the Foothills. Inside Calgary, ENMAX runs the power lines and takes outage reports at 403-514-6100; its service area also reaches parts of Rocky View County and Tsuut'ina Nation. Whatever the address, the first call is the same: 825-561-7544. Save it in your phone before you need it.
Emergency Electrical Repair — your questions, answered
What counts as an electrical emergency?
Fire, smoke or a person who has been shocked: call 911 first. After that, phone an electrician straight away for a burning smell, sparks or scorch marks, an outlet or panel that feels hot, a panel that buzzes, a breaker that won't hold, water near outlets or the panel, or power lost to part of your building while the neighbours still have it. A fault like that is already heating up, sparking or getting wet, and it won't fix itself.
Should I turn off the main breaker in an electrical emergency?
Only if you can reach the panel from a dry floor and it isn't hot, smoking or sparking. Switching off the affected breaker is enough when you know which one it is; the main is the fallback when you don't. If reaching the panel means standing in water or touching anything scorched, leave it, get everyone out and call.
My neighbours have power but I don't. Who do I call?
Check your main breaker first. If it's on and the power is still out, call the ENMAX Power Trouble Line at 403-514-6100. It may be a cable fault, which ENMAX crews locate. ENMAX repairs the cable beyond your property line, but on private property the owner needs a certified electrician for the permits and the repair.
There's water near my outlets or electrical panel. What should I do?
Stay out of the water and don't touch the panel or anything plugged in. If you can reach the main from a dry spot, switch it off; otherwise leave and call. After a flood, the City of Calgary advises contacting ENMAX at 403-514-6100 if you have no electricity. Have wet receptacles, fixtures and breakers checked by an electrician before power goes back on.
Do you take emergency calls after hours, and what does it cost?
Yes. Office hours are Monday to Friday, 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., and after-hours emergency calls go to the same number, 825-561-7544. We don't publish prices, because emergencies range from a loose connection to a damaged service. On site we explain what failed and what the repair costs, and you approve it before the repair starts.
Do you handle emergencies for businesses and outside Calgary?
Yes. Most of our work is commercial, so we take calls from offices, shops and warehouses as well as homes, across Calgary and towns within about 100 km, including Airdrie, Cochrane, Chestermere, Okotoks, Strathmore and Rocky View County. For a utility outage outside Calgary, ENMAX lists FortisAlberta's line: 310-WIRE (310-9473).
Related electrical services
Burning smell, sparking or power loss?
Call 825-561-7544. The same number takes after-hours emergency calls. Fire, smoke or someone hurt? Call 911 first.
