MONTREAL -- A Quebec patients' rights group is demanding an inquiry into a power failure that crippled a major Montreal hospital, striking the emergency ward, the neonatal unit and the embryo incubators of one of the largest infertility clinics in Canada.

The Royal Victoria Hospital said there were no deaths or injuries from the outage, which forced emergency-room staff to use flashlights. Electricity collapsed for 80 minutes beginning at 1:15 a.m. on Saturday.

"It was just a very unfortunate incident," said Chantal Beauregard, spokeswoman for the McGill University Health Centre, which includes the Royal Victoria. "We'll try to get to the bottom of it."

Yesterday, observers questioned how a leading Canadian hospital could be hobbled for more than an hour because the emergency backup generator failed to kick in.

"We were lucky this time. It could have been worse," said Paul Brunet, general manager of the Quebec Council for the Protection of Patients. "It's a long power failure for a place as critical as a hospital. We're not looking for guilty parties, but we can't have the situation repeat itself. Otherwise, everyone is going to live with doubts and worries."

He said all Quebec hospitals have been required to have foolproof generators since the 1998 ice storm that darkened large swaths of the province. The Royal Victoria Hospital said its generator was checked last week and was fine.

The power breakdown caused some high-stress moments in the emergency ward. Ms. Beauregard said emergency overhead lights came on when the electricity failed, but the batteries ran out soon afterward.

"Some of the lights gave out and flashlights had to be used," she said.

Hospital staff wheeled one patient out of the intensive-care unit and into another hospital pavilion. A baby on a ventilator in the neonatal intensive-care unit had to be given emergency assistance manually with an air bag. Ambulances were turned away.

The failure reached the McGill Reproductive Centre, one of the largest infertility treatment centres in Canada. Embryos from six couples getting in vitro fertilization treatment were in incubators at the time, but a staffer checked them within 30 minutes of the power failure and the embryos were not at risk, said Dr. Seang Lin Tan, the centre's medical director.

The source of the problem was traced to a blown fuse within the hospital.