Power has been restored to roughly 6,200 customers of Central Maine Power in Lewiston.

The outage occurred about 12:15, when a four-legged, scampering invader illicitly entered a CMP facility, and was restored about an hour later.

“A squirrel got into one of our substations and caused some problems for himself and about 6,200 people in the Lewiston area,” said Gail Rice, a Central Maine Power Co. spokeswoman. “He got into some energized equipment and he became part of the path to ground.”

There are 18,255 CMP customers in Lewiston.

One substation was restarted right away, but the one where the squirrel met its demise took longer. Eventually, by 1:19 p.m., the company had restored power to all customers.

 

 


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