Explosion outside power plant left town without electricity for about an hour
Video courtesy of Rachel Zoglmann Lansden…
(Updated 2:37 p.m.) by Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — A fast moving squirrel that got himself caught up in the wiring of a transformer is being blamed for a citywide power outage that lasted almost two hours Thursday afternoon in Wellington.
Wellington Fire Chief Tim Hay, said the explosion which people around the area heard, was probably a result of a fire that started and got out of control quickly in the transformer adjacently north of the Wellington City Power Plant at 504 S. Blaine. The fire created the outage at 12:30 p.m. today. Electricity was restored to most of the area by 2:45 p.m.
Hay estimates the damage may be around $25,000.
No one was injured in the incident. The road was closed off as city emergency and electric workers worked feverishly to solve the problem.
Wellington City Manager Shane Shields confirmed that the cause of the power plant fire was due to a squirrel.
Sumner Newscow spoke to a couple of people who were close to the incident.Â
•Regina Gilbreth, who lives on 2nd and G Street, reported that she was busy communicating on Facebook with others when she felt what was a big earthquake and a big “kaboom” almost simultaneously. She ran out to see this huge black billowing smoke with an orange fireball in the middle.
“I really thought a bomb went off,†Gilbreth said.
•Rachel Lansden, who has the video above, said her house shook on 419 S. Blaine.
“It sounded and looked like the crackling balls you see on the Fourth of July, but a lot louder,” she said.
