In Taylorsville this Thursday morning, a curious incident involving a squirrel led to a significant power outage affecting thousands of residents. Rocky Mountain Power reported that around 4,500 of its customers were initially without power when a squirrel came into unfortunate contact with electrical equipment. According to the utility company, the squirrel triggered a fault at approximately 6:50 a.m., which resulted in a blown fuse, as informed by FOX 13.
A spokesperson for the power company detailed to ABC4 that the squirrel likely "closed a circuit" by simultaneously touching two power lines, grounding the system, and causing a short. Despite the flurry of activity to manage this disruption, by 9 a.m., crews had restored electricity to the majority of those affected, with the outage map reflecting 1,663 customers still waiting for their power to return. Full power was expected to resume by 10 a.m.
The impact on the community was considerable, given the number of households and businesses caught unprepared. Whitesides from Rocky Mountain Power pointed out in a statement obtained by KSLTV that while the incident may seem bizarre, damage by animals like squirrels is quite common, even occurring monthly at times. As of 8:30 a.m., Whitesides confirmed, a replacement operation for the fuse was still underway.
