Squirrel Disregards Electrical Safety, Causes Outage in Scappoose

March 25, 2009

An overly adventurous squirrel was investigating Scappoose Substation Tuesday afternoon and caused a disturbance that blew six 115,000-volt fuses, leaving 2,177 Columbia River PUD customers without power. 

 The outage occurred at 3:06 p.m. and was accompanied by an electrical arc and a loud boom that left nearby residents wondering what had blown up. 

 "Those fuses are five feet long and when one of them blows, it's loud," said PUD Operations Supervisor Mark Larson.  "I can't imagine how loud it must have been when six of them blew at the same time."  

 PUD crews had been dispatched to Scappoose when a PGE lineman who was near the substation at the time of the incident called the PUD to describe the damage. PUD crews replaced the blown fuses and restored power at 5:08 p.m. 

 The squirrel did not survive.  

"This outage was a good reminder of how dangerous substations can be," said Larson.  "They're not a safe place for squirrels, or people, to be."   

Affected customers included homes and businesses along Highway 30 and in northwest and southeast Scappoose. 

Customers in south Scappoose and the Dutch Canyon area (including the Fred Meyer shopping center) were not affected since they are served by Dutch Canyon Substation.