Lights went out in part of Bethesda on Sunday, but the explanation was not the trees that are so frequently cited. The blame was placed on a creature that often relies on trees for its livelihood: a squirrel.
Squirrels are known to utilities across the nation as a significant cause of power outages, and the companies make substantial efforts to keep them out of substations and off transmission wires.
Sunday’s blackout affected about 1,200 homes and businesses that get electricity from a Pepco substation in Bethesda, said Pepco spokesman Clay Anderson. He said the blackout began around 11:20 a.m. and lasted less than an hour.
Repair crews sent to the affected substation “did find the remains of an electrocuted squirrel in the midst of some switch gear,” Anderson said. The squirrel had disrupted the flow of electricity, he said.
It was at least the second outage attributed to wildlife in the metropolitan area in recent weeks. On April 24, Easter Sunday, the intrusion of a snake into a substation in the Upper Marlboro area briefly cut power to about 6,800 homes and businesses.
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