Squirrel causes fire at substation

BRITTANY WHITLEY
STAFF WRITER
Published: July 24, 2008

In one of three power outages this week, a squirrel got into the East Alabama Power Substation at the intersection of Glenn Avenue and Dean Road Wednesday and went nuts — leaving 1,800 customers without power.

“We had a fire at a substation because of a squirrel,” said Jan Ellis, a public information representative for Alabama Power.

The furry fugitive crawled into the station, something that is not that uncommon, Ellis said.

Apparently, creatures frequently scurry their way into the power hubs.

“Snakes get in substations,” she said. But squirrels cause problems because they are so active. Customers went without power for around 15 minutes until power was re-routed to another station, she said.

The squirrel was not the power company’s only woe this week.

“Today (Thursday) we had one at 7:30 this morning we had some wire down on South College,” she said.

Approximately 86 customers on South College Street were without power for a hour and a half.

“We don’t know why the wire went,” she said.

In a third incident, the Auburn University Alumni Center on College Street was without power for a short time Thursday morning.

“Yeah, there was a tree that fell on Gay Street,” said Amanda Thomas, the manager of marketing and membership at the Auburn Alumni Association.