Squirrel Causes Widespread Power Outage

A squirrel caused a power outage that affected almost the entire borough Tuesday night when it got into a piece of equipment in the Kings Road substation and was electrocuted.

The outage lasted about 40 minutes, as power was restored by the Madison electric department around 8 p.m.

The Madison Police and Fire Departments responded throughout the Rose City. Police placed flares and directed traffic in major intersections, including Main Street and Prospect Street/Greenwood Avenue.

The fire department responded to alarms at Stop & Shop and Whole Foods, according to firefighter Danny Phillips. The alarms went off in conjunction with the outage, and there were not actual incidents. The department also responded to both the Kings Road and the Madison Avenue substations. No fires were discovered at those sites, either, though the one was the source of the outage.

The police department fielded about 200 phone calls related to the outage, some through 911. Police strongly encourage residents to only use 911 for emergencies, and not for reporting or inquiring about power outages.

"Don't call 911, and don't drive unless it's an emergency," said Borough Administrator Ray Codey, who was at the public safety complex during and after the outage.

Sgt. Joseph Cirella was in charge of the police department during the outage. The department said there were no accidents in the borough during the 40 minutes without traffic lights.

Fire Chief Lou DeRosa was at the public safety complex, and said the emergency generator which is in place to keep the fire and police departments running at full strength during such occurrences worked perfectly.

Borough Council President Jeannie Tsukamoto, who is the public safety liaison, was at the complex checking on the situation. She said the departments did a great job during the outage.

"The police, fire and electric utility are all well trained," she said. "They are well prepared for a situation like this."

Mayor Mary-Anna Holden complimented the electric utility workers who made the repairs to restore power, saying that it's times like these that the borough is lucky to have its own. She and Codey said with another company, it most likely would have taken much longer to restore power to the borough.

A small portion of the borough near the high school did have power throughout the incident, but otherwise the squirrel effected the entire borough.