Squirrel causes power outage in La Cañada

An errant squirrel caused a brief blackout in La Cañada Flintridge today, as 1,260 Southern California Edison customers lost power for 11 minutes, according to SCE spokesman Paul Klein.

The blackout, which occurred from 11:26 a.m. to 11:37 a.m., affected customers within an area stretching from Altura Avenue on the north, Cherry Canyon on the south, Commonwealth Avenue on the east and Ramsdell Avenue in the west.

Klein said that a squirrel managed to get inside some equipment, causing a temporary failure, an occasional hazard SCE faces.

“I don’t think you can say it’s common, but it does happen,” he said.

City Public Works analyst Arabo Parseghian said that traffic signals in the affected area went dark briefly, but that there were no accidents.

“Literally 10 minutes after our inspector went out the power was back on and everything was fine,” he said.

-- Daniel Siegal, Times Community News

Twitter: @ValleySunDan