Squirrel triggers local power, phone outage
A rogue squirrel left Wills Point residents in the dark on Saturday night, causing a small fire at a local power substation while causing major power and phone outages across the area.
The incident disrupted services to local customers began before 8 p.m. and was first believed to be a transformer fire.
The Wills Point Emergency Management Facebook page, which offers updates and notices on happenings in the city, posted a notice stating: “Transformer fire has caused significant power outages in and around Wills Point. Local police and fire non-emergency numbers appear to be not working. All requests for Police, Fire and EMS need to call 911. Any urgent request for assistance with medical devices also need to call 911.”
Teams from Oncor and Trinity Valley Electric Co-Op responded to the scene to assess the damage and initiate repairs.
Another post from the same Wills Point Emergency Management page time stamped just an hour after the initial note cautioning about the outage identified a squirrel as the culprit of the headache experienced by local residents.
The post reads in part: “The transformer fire that knocked out power in and around Wills Point was actually at the power substation near the Methodist Church. A squirrel got into the transformer area of the high voltage transmission and distribution system causing a small fire. For those who remember, a squirrel caused the same issue about two years ago. Oncor and TVEC responded quickly with a specialized high voltage team.”
