A wayward squirrel is to blame for a power outage Sunday that affected hundreds of customers in Falmouth, according to Central Maine Power.
Power went out in the morning and was restored before noon, said a dispatcher.
“What happened is there’s a place on top of the pole where there’s a bare spot” where wires connect to the transformer, CMP spokeswoman Catharine Hartnett said Sunday. Occasionally a bird or squirrel will hit the bare spot and cause an outage, she said.
The pole was on Johnson Road which intersects with Route 1, Hartnett said. The outage began at 9:40 and power was restored around 11 a.m., and 880 customers were impacted, Hartnett said.
CMP has an ongoing program to update equipment to cover those bare spots so a bird or squirrel won’t prompt outages. “We are working to reduce those incidents,” Hartnett said.
The outage prompted some businesses to close temporarily. At the Rosemont Market and Bakery, an employee said power was out for about 20 minutes, prompting them to lock the door and hang a “closed” sign.
“But we’re back open” and customers were inside again, she said.
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