A surprising about-face today from Enmax.

It appears the company is backing down from taking full responsibility for a power surge at Mayfair Place.

The surge displaced hundreds of residents and businesses and destroyed equipment.

Now, a family doctor in the building is pleading for Enmax to help his practice re-open.

Dr. Johann Van Der Merwe is frustrated, saying Enmax should foot the bill to replace thousands of dollars worth of equipment in his family practice, damaged last weekend by a power .

"A whole bunch of my computers are gone, my printers are gone, my diagnostic sets are gone," he says.

"There's a lot of equipment that is done. We have to replace them first before we'll be able to open for business and see our patients."

He says three doctors treat about 150 patients in his practice every day.

Dr. Van Der Merver says his commercial insurance company won't cover the costs because the damage was caused by an outside party.

Enmax admitted Monday the outage happened when its crews installed the wrong piece of equipment.

"One of the transformers that was being replaced was over-sized and it let more voltage than it should have, and that sent the voltage through the circuits in the building," said Gary Holden, Enmax president.

But now it appears the company is backing away from that. In a statement to CTV, Enmax says:

"The first step in determining who is responsible for losses is to determine the full details behind the cause of the electrical damage and responsibility for both the surge and any other events that may have contributed to the losses at Mayfair Place. No party is in a position at this stage to commit to paying for losses that have or will occur beyond what Enmax has already announced."

Already announced was up to $3,000 to replace damaged electronics for over 300 residents, but no compensation for the 50 commercial businesses affected.

Dr. Van Der Merver says he may be forced to take out a loan to front the costs to get his practice up and running again.

He'll be allowed back into his office Monday, but he won't be able to see any of his patients.



