Bird causes power outage

Thursday, May 31, 2012
© Copyright 2013 Newton Citizen

COVINGTON -- About 300 city of Covington utility customers were without power Wednesday evening after a bird flew into a 7,200-volt power line, according to Utilities Director Bill Meecham.

At 5:20 p.m. the bird made contact with a 7,200-volt power line just outside the city's Elm Street substation, causing an electrical flash that tripped out one of the circuit breakers in the substation, Meecham said. Areas that lost power included Mill Street, the Covington Mill area and parts of North Covington and U.S. Highway 278.

City personnel identified the cause of the outage and restored power at 6 p.m.

Meecham said this is a pretty rare occurrence, "However, we have more incidents with squirrels that climb onto poles. Fortunately, most of the squirrel incidents are limited to blowing fuses on individual transformers, affecting only a handful of homes."

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