Rodent Causes 3-Minute Outage Affecting 11,000
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A rodent crawling inside an electrical transformer near Camarillo Airport on Sunday caused a brief power outage affecting 11,000 Southern California Edison customers.
The transformer at a 66,000-volt substation at Pleasant Valley and Wood roads shut itself down about 12:48 p.m., cutting off power throughout Camarillo and the eastern portion of Oxnard, said Edison spokesman Thomas Boyd.
Three minutes later, the power came back on, Boyd said.
“We were lucky this time, there was a flashover [fire]. But there was no discernible damage to the substation,” Boyd said. “The thing shut itself down, waited a few minutes and then we connected it again.”
The Ventura County Fire Department dispatch center in Camarillo lost power temporarily, but an emergency generator was quickly engaged, authorities said. The generator turned off as soon as the power came back on.
Power was also out at Camarillo Airport for about three minutes, but no flights were affected, said an airport spokesman.
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